The birth of the Romanov Dynasty . One of the most celebrated productions of Beketov's remarkable historical and scholarly effort. A fine example of the preferred hand-coloured version on thick paper, printed on Beketov's own press two years before the press was destroyed in the 1812 fire of Moscow.

This lovely work is the only printed visual record of Tsar Mikhail's wedding, and one of very few illustrating Russian in the XVII century, which Beketov describes in the preface as 'a time when Russia, we could say, resurrected and, by shaking off its encroachers, regained its authentic soul.' As always, Beketov's work is based on a historical source and so takes the form of an 'ancient manuscript with images' (Smirnov-Sok.). The scenes depicted include preparations for Tsar Mikhail's second wedding as well as the ceremony itself and several Russian orthodox rituals. Mikhail was the first Tsar of the Romanov dynasty, which was to rule the Russian Empire during 300 years. His wife Evdokiia Lukianovna Streshneva (1608-45) was the daughter of the nobleman Lukian Stepanovich Streshnev.

"Роскошное и редкое издaниe" [A luxurious and rare edition] (Solov'ev).


Large 4to (32 x 24.2 cm); 137pp. including title, introduction, half-title and 65 hand-coloured full-page engravings, red ink ownership inscription to front free endpaper, Russian booksellers' stamps to lower pastedown; contemporary Russian half-calf over marbled boards, original black label to flat spine lettered in gilt; recornered and rebacked to style preserving label, boards a bit rubbed.