From the Kalmuck Steppes to Heinrich Heine

The paper offers a survey of the Kalmuck and Mongol typography developed in St. Petersburg under supervision of Isaak Jakob Schmidt, Europe’s first expert on Kalmuck and translator of the Bible into this language. This work was practically, executed by Friedrich Gass, a designer, in St. Petersburg, probably advised by the engineer, Orientalist and printing expert Schilling von Canstadt. The actual printing was arranged by Nikolaj Grech, printer, bookseller, author, whose biography was translated by Maximilian Heine, brother of the poet Heinrich Heine. Two anonymous booklets on life in St. Petersburg were identified as M. Heine’s work by means of a dedication which led to Therese Heine — a cousin of the Heine brothers, to whom Heinrich addressed his probably best known love poem “You are like a flower”.