Did the Tsar hide his library for centuries? Or did it burn down during the numerous fires in Moscow? Was this a unique collection of antique texts? Or a collection of ordinary Byzantine church prayers? These questions still excite the minds of people along with the main thing: "Where to look for the library of Ivan the Terrible?"
The last to do the search were Russian entrepreneurs in 1995. They sponsored historical research and excavation, and even insured the mythical library for a very real amount. In 1999, the search ended in a complete fiasco. Almost seventy decades earlier, Chekists were looking for Liberia. They didn't find either. The search for rare books was carried out at the end of the 19th century by order of Emperor Alexander III.
The best minds of Russia of that time could not find even reliable sources about the existence of the library. Even in more distant times, excavations and searches were carried out by domestic leaders and the Jesuits sent by the Vatican. The latter were exposed and exiled to Siberia, but no traces of the library were found.
The history of the legendary collection of books began many centuries ago under the Byzantine emperors. They were the ones who collected the library until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. After this sad event, the books were taken by sea to Rome, where 50 years later they were given as a dowry to the former heiress of the Byzantine throne, Sophia Paleologus. The girl was going to marry Ivan III.
In Moscow, Sophia ordered to hide books from fires in a stone basement under a church in the Kremlin. From the further history of the library, it is more or less reliably known that Prince Vasily III was engaged in its translation into Russian. And the last documentary evidence is a record from the words of a Protestant pastor, who was invited by Ivan the Terrible to translate books in 1570. And already in 1571 Ivan IV “retired from the world” to modern Aleksandrov and allegedly took the books with him. After that, nothing is known about them.
Practically from those distant times, the lost library also excites the minds of people who are not indifferent to history and books.
Promotional video: