Trophy Manuscripts from East Prussia in the Russian State Library

Abstract

The article describes and studies the manuscripts (codices and fragments) of displaced cultural valuables, which were received by the Lenin State Library of the USSR (Russian State Library now) after the Second World War. To date, this topic remains insufficiently developed — both in respect of individual manuscripts, and in respect of collections. The materials originating from the local stores of East Prussia (and covering the history of these lands) are the main research object of this article. The authors give codicological and paleographic characteristics of certain manuscripts, constituting the most important and valuable part of the trophy collection № 943 (“Kaliningrad”), as well as describe some of the German manuscripts relating to East Prussia from the new acquisitions of the Manuscripts Department of the RSL. The manuscript books and fragments are distributed in thematic groups, including liturgics, theology, philology, “Rossica”, law, natural sciences. There are interesting materials from the field of Jewish stu- dies. Among the most valuable, there are the materials on the history of the Teutonic Order, the manuscript of the pastor Zeisold (beginning of the 18th century) with an outlined description of Russia under Peter I, the Charter of Leopold I to the title of count for Johann Ernst Wallenrode, the 17th century epistolary collection “Original Letters of the Jesuits, Sent to Rome from China, Japan and India”. The manuscripts from East Prussia are of undoubted scientific interest due to many historical “intersections” of the history of that region with the history of the Russian state.