Book of Icon Patterns" contains the collection of old drawings, called 'icon prorisi and perevody' (imprints and transfers), which had been worked out by icon-painters for centuries. Prorisi and perevody represent a specific genre of drawing which task is to preserve and manifold an outline of flat image, mostly of an icon composition. Ideally prorisi and perevody of icons appear to be absolutely precise reproductions of the outlines of icon compositions on paper. Moreover, only strictly canonical images, sanctified by church, were selected for most of prorisi. One significant circumstance should also be mentioned here, namely, that church itself never and nowhere legalized icon prorisi and perevody or any other patterns used in original icons, with the exception of some rather ambiguous articles of "Stoglavy Sobor". One can only rarely find notes about this or that composition made by icon-painters on the sheets with old patterns. Before describing the role and importance of the patterns made on paper for icon painting, it is necessary to provide the reader with a clear idea of this subject and the author's understanding of it. Some contradictions in grasping of the terms 'proris' and 'perevod' make it even more necessary. We are using the comprehensive explanation of these words, which belongs to an outstanding St.Petersburg connoisseur of icon-painting and icon-patterns, icon-painter and restorer, an old-believer F.A. Kalikin (1876-1971). "If an icon-painter had to make a replica of an icon outline he delicately ground some black paint with garlic juice, then he made an outline of the whole composition of the icon with a squirrel hair brush, the outline being neither thinner nor thicker then the original. When the outline was completed, he took a blank sheet of paper, put it onto the just outlined icon and holding it with his left hand, he opened a part of the sheet with his right hand and slightly breathed on it to moisten a portion of the outline. Then he rubbed the moistened paper with his right hand and the black paint mixed with garlic juice left a negative imprint on the white paper. This very imprint of the negative outline is called 'proris'. F.A. Kalikin defines 'proris' as a negative imprint of the original outline, i. e. a proris gives a mirror or reversed image of an outline of the icon composition. Old icon-painters also called it 'left' image.
In this book we will call an imprint on paper copied from a proris 'an icon transfer' ('a direct image'). To obtain this 'icon transfer' a clear moistened sheet of paper was placed on a proris, pressed, and as a result a reversed image with a direct picture was gained. Thus, an icon transfer or 'perevod' reproduces a direct image of an icon composition. Further in our book we will use the terms 'perevod' and 'proris' in the meanings mentioned.