Chapter 1 explores why the sixteenth century was called “ocularcentric,” that is, how imagery came to be considered an authentic representation of truth. Contemporaries recognized a variety of kinds of imagery, some understood to be realistic representations, others as fabulous. It outlines the burgeoning of printed materials – books, maps, pamphlets – in the very first centuries after Gutenberg, focusing on early modern Europeans’ curiosity about describing their world, not only overseas discoveries but “chorographies” of European lands as well. All of this invited illustration, not always well regulated for accuracy. The chapter concludes by exploring how publishers designed early printed books and visual images.

This Introduction explores the wild and wooly world of print culture in the sixteenth century, when authors and publishers struggled to establish the authenticity of scholarly books. They did this by devising the physical format of books from title pages to illustrations. Nevertheless, piracy was a constant in the burgeoning world of print culture. The Introduction also outlines the problem of the visual and the many ways in which visual imagery was applied and changed in printed books, pamphlets and maps. It concludes by detailing the rather limited historiography on visual imagery of Russians and introducing the chapters.