Pechatnik

(seal-keeper), an official at the court of the Russian princes and tsars from the 13th to 17th centuries. The function of the pechatnik was to keep the state seal and to affix it to official documents. He was usually a commoner. In the 16th and 17th centuries the pechatnik headed the Office of Seals. In the 16th century he also headed the ruler’s personal chancery and the state archive (tsar’s archive).