Book Museum Research Articles

The Ego-Text of a Bibliophile: D.V. Ulyaninskyʼs Diary Entries in the “Catalog of New Library Acquisitions”

The article analyzes the handwritten “Catalog of New Library Acquisitions” by the famous bibliographer and bibliophile D.V. Ulyaninsky (1861—1918), stored in the department of Rare books (the Book Museum) of the Russian State Library. It is considered as an ego-text that directly reflects the bibliophile life of the author and his experiences related to it. In the text, the bibliophile not only recorded all receipts to his personal library, but also left diary entries. From them, you can learn about the folding of the library structure, changes in the accounting system, and the exclusion of publications from its composition. In his diary entries, which became acts of self-communication and self-reflection, the bibliophile described his relationship with booksellers, difficulties in collecting, justified for himself the high costs of books, rejoiced at successful acquisitions, noted some events of public and personal life, etc. It is concluded that the “Catalog of New Library Acquisitions” acted as a draft, a pre-text for a detailed bibliographic description of the library of D.V. Ulyaninsky, which received a printed embodiment. Many of his notes remain only in manuscript. This fact makes them a unique source both for studying the biography of D.V. Ulyaninsky and for the history of the world of antique book trade and bibliophilia of the late 19th — early 20th century.

Russian Bindings of the 1780s—1790s with Endpapers Made of Decorative Block-Printed Paper

One of the most difficult tasks in the study of bindings of old printed books is to determine the time of their manufacture in the absence of a date affixed by the bookbinder or the customer and other documented information. The study attempts to identify the characteristic features of Russian bindings of the last two decades of the 18th century, based on a group of bindings united by one material — decorative flyleaf paper with block-printed pattern. The article tells about the history of the manufacture of such decorative papers in Europe and Russia in the 18th century, about the types of printed drawings of Russian papers and the peculiarities of their use in bookbinding. Endpapers made of block-printed paper became one of the characteristic features of Russian bindings of the 1780s—1790s. The research is based on books printed in Moscow printing houses from the collection of publications of the civil press of the 18th century in the Department of Rare Books of the Russian State Library (Book Museum). There were 1080 books in-octavo format of the 1780s—1790s were selected in solid-leather bindings only with block-printed endpapers, their design and decorative features were identified and described. The analysis showed that such endpaper was almost always combined in the binding with marbled calfskin of a special pattern as a cover material, which can be considered as a sign of a special genre of binding. His other features: the method of fastening the endpapers, the absence of a headband and ribbon or cord bookmarks, characteristic stamping stamps — are non-specific, but also quite regular, so they can be used for more accurate dating and other domestic bindings of the late 18th century.

Hectographed Old Believer Editions from the Collection of the RSL Book Museum

The article is devoted to the hectographed Old Believer publications stored in Scientific Research Department of Rare Books (the Book Museum) in Russian State Library. A brief description of the composition of the collection is presented, as well as the specifics of its formation (in the absolute majority such publications were received after the revolutionary events of 1917). The main sources of their receipt were the book collections of the most famous Old Believer community in Moscow (at the Rogozhsky cemetery), as well as the nationalized library of the Brotherhood of St. Peter the Metropolitan. For historians of the book, the thematic composition of the collection of Old Believer authors and writings is of interest.

Brocade Papers in the Collection of Russian Books of Civil Printing of the 18th Century of the Russian State Library Book Museum

Among the decorative binding papers of the 18th century, brocade papers, so called because of their resemblance to expensive gold woven fabrics, can be recognized as particularly spectacular. The rich relief pattern, the combination of gold and silver lustre with a multi-coloured paper backing was the secret of their popularity in European countries for a whole century.The technique of paper gilding and embossing originated in the early 18th century in Augsburg. Subsequently, brocade papers were produced in various cities in Germany and mainly spread throughout Europe from there. Although brocade papers were also used by Russian masters, there are no special works about this binding material in the Russian historiography.The article is devoted to the description of the collection of brocade papers preserved as covers and forzats in Russian civil books of the 18th century in the collection of the Book Museum of the Russian State Library (RSL). The questions of terminology, production technology and systematization of brocade papers are considered. The main types of domestic publications characterized by the use of this material are calendars, published annually at the Academy of Sciences printing house in St. Petersburg, and descriptions of various celebrations, speeches “on occasion”, odes, “instructive words” and “reasonings”, produced by different printing houses and usually small in volume.The collection provides rich material for a more accurate understanding of the role of the printing house and the aesthetic preferences of the reading public in the external design of books in the period of the birth of bookbinding in Russia. Decorative binding papers are valuable not only for the researcher of old-printed books, librarian, collector or restorer, but also for the cultural historian in a broad sense, as content, stylistically and technologically they reflect general trends in the production of wallpapers, fabrics, furniture and trade packaging. On the basis of the description of the quantitative and qualitative composition of the collection of the RSL Book Museum a methodology of working with brocade papers is proposed, which can be applied to the collections of other fund holders as well.

“Indispensable Reference Book”: Russian Calendars or Monthbooks of the 18th Century from the Collection of the Russian State Library Book Museum

For a modern user, a calendar is usually a reference table that lists all the days of the year in sequential order, dividing them into months and weeks, and highlighting weekends and holidays with a special color. People of the 18th century gave the calendar similar definitions, but its functions were much broader: the calendar became a desk book, fulfilled the functions of a notebook, an individual for each family home directory — for this purpose in the copies, even at the stage of conclusion in the cover or binding, blank sheets were bound to keep family and household records. Throughout most of the 18th century, the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg had the exclusive right to issue calendars, and the calendars, along with other academic publications, were subject to state and church control, as they contained current information about persons serving at the court and about the highest Russian officialdom. The Russian State Library as part of the collection of the Research Department of Rare Books (Museum of Books) holds a representative collection of calendars and monthbooks of the 18th century, which makes it possible to get acquainted with the repertoire of this type of publications. The present study examines the subjects and readers’ address of calendars or monthbooks of the 18th century, reveals the content of the “Calendar or Monthbook for the summer from the Nativity of Christ...”, court, historical, geographical, economic, travel, church, “fortune-telling” calendars on the example of copies from the collection of the Book Museum.The calendar as a type of publishing reacted sensitively to the changes that took place in society and in the book business in different historical periods, tried to record the information that seemed important to contemporaries, helped owners to structure their lives and the lives of their families, their homes and households. Calendars had their readers and admirers. It is in the calendar that one finds information that has not passed the test of time, but is so necessary to reconstruct the history of everyday life of a particular era.

Thomas Bewick — Engraver, Publisher, Innovator

The article is devoted to the problem of revising assessment of the work of the outstanding British engraver and publisher Thomas Bewick. Traditionally, it is considered in the context of the general history of engraving development, mostly not connected with either animalistics or scientific editions. In this regard, T. Bewick’s works of artistic significance belong to natural-scientific illustrations and are used in popular science editions. The erroneous assessment of his works is associated with a widespread stereotype in which scientific illustration is considered as something of low artistic value. The purpose of this research is to study the genesis of T. Bewick’s creativity by analyzing his main works. Of particular interest is the research of the artistic features of woodcut technique, which, thanks to T. Bewick, has found a new life. It is traced the evolution of the engraver’s work from his early period to mature one. The complexity of Bewick’s talent is noted not only as an engraver of book illustrations, but also as an engraver of bookplates. The characteristic of the technique of cutting a design into hardwood cut across is given, the innovative methods thanks to which Bewick has brought this type of an engraving to a new level of book illustration are revealed. Based on the memoirs of Bewick, the author traces the history of the creation of his main books — “A General History of the Quadrupeds” and “A History of British Birds”. It is noted that illustrations by G. Buffon and H. White served as additional sources for “A History of British Birds” despite the use of his own sketches. The author analyses the illustrations and engravings from these books, which are kept in the collections of the Research and Scientific Department of Rare Books (Museum of Book) of the Russian State Library. The structural features of the brief descriptions of “A General History of the Quadrupeds” are considered. Particular attention is paid to the style of the vignettes, which present an integral part of Bewick’s creative credo. Such features of Bewick’s illustrations as realism, as well as the depiction of humorous genre scenes and jokes are revealed. The author notes that at a late stage of Bewick’s art work he rarely uses black cross-hatching, using instead combinations of the wide fields and carefully engraved white spots. The most essential features of Bewick’s engraving are revealed: the principle of “white line”, hatching with crossed and parallel lines, creation of halftones with very thin strokes and tiny dots. It is emphasized that although Bewick’s illustrations have been published in popular scientific publications, they have influenced the development of scientific illustration through their highly artistic execution. It is concluded that woodcut technique allowed to simulate the volume of an image by means of a white stroke.

Rare Editions of N. M. Karamzin’s Works in Novosibirsk Libraries

Lifetime and rare editions of works of great writers, researchers, public figures are of special cultural and historical value and enjoy the increased attention of the keepers of book collections and visitors of book museum exhibitions. The purpose of this article is to introduce into scientific circulation the rare copies of domestic and foreign editions of works of the historian and writer N. M. Karamzin (1766 – 1826), stored in the Novosibirsk State Regional Scientific Library (NSRSL) and the State Public Scientific and Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPSTL SB RAS). Among them are books from the library of the Kolyvan-Voskresensk mining plants, including those received there from personal collections of mining engineers, copies of the journal “Vestnik Evropy” for 1802-1803 from the collection of V. S. Mikhalkov, a volume of “History of the Russian State” used in one of the oldest educational institutions in Russia – the Smolensk Boys’ Gymnasium, a volume of a lifetime edition of the “History of the Russian State”, which belonged to the historian, archaeographer P. M. Stroev, the compiler of the “Key, or alphabetical index to the “History of the Russian State” by N. M. Karamzin”.Special attention should be paid to the first complete Russian-language edition of “On Ancient and New Russia in its Political and Civil Relations”, written in 1811, addressed directly to Emperor Alexander I and for censorship reasons first published only abroad, in Berlin, in 1861. A copy from the Department of Rare Books and manuscripts of the State Public Scientific Library of SB RAS is unique in that it contains proofreading notes of the historian A. N. Pypin. Relying on this copy of the Berlin edition of N. M. Karamzin’s work and consulting the handwritten copies of it which were at his disposal, he prepared the first complete publication of the text of this manifesto of Russian conservatism in Russia in 1900 as an appendix to his monograph “Social Movement in Russia under Alexander I”. A careful study of valuable publications from the collections of Novosibirsk libraries deepens our knowledge about the book culture of Siberia and, more broadly, about the history of Russian-language book culture, about the history of the formation of Novosibirsk book collections, demonstrates the continuity of these collections in relation to the outstanding book collections of the past.

Visualising Afro-Cultural Identities in Contemporary Argentina: The Case of Antepasados. Los afroporteños en la cultura nacional

Antepasados. Los afroporteños en la cultura nacional [Ancestors: Afroporteños in National Culture] was one of the most comprehensive museum exhibits to address the cultural heritage of Afro-descendants from Buenos Aires – known as afroporteños. It was open to the public from April to June 2016 at the Museo del Libro y de la Lengua [Museum of Books and Language]. The primary purpose of Antepasados was to recapture afroporteños’ cultural heritage and fill what scholars, curators, and the government saw as a “regrettable absence” in narratives about national identity. This study examines how Antepasados (2016) articulated the logic of whiteness in Argentina and the politics of race representation in museums and public history while recognising the erasure of Afro-descendants in official discourse. This exhibit acknowledges the contribution of afroporteños to national culture and identity, and shows how Argentine society is dealing with its racial reckoning, albeit with certain contradictions. Finally, this study inscribes the case of afroporteños into broader discussions about race in Latin America by reframing national identity and cultural heritage discourses in more inclusive terms within a country where an emphasis on whiteness has been predominant.

A Researcher by Vocation, a Science Manager by Duty: to the 50th Anniversary of A.Yu. Samarin

This article charts the career of Alexander Yuryevich Samarin, Deputy Director General for Scientific and Publishing Activities at the Russian State Library (RSL), Doctor of Historical Sciences, and the Honoured Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation. It details his professional journey, starting from his studies at the V.I. Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical University (1990—1995), and concludes with his current position. A.Yu. Samarin has authored more than 560 scientific papers and has received over ten state and public awards. As a scientist, A.Yu. Samarin is recognized for his meticulous study of sources related to his research topics, and for his deep interest in the individuals who have made significant contributions to history. His most prominent administrative achievements include streamlining the operations of the RSL Research Department of Rare Books (Book Museum); his advocacy for establishing a legal framework for book monuments; his efforts to restore library science, bibliography, and book science as part of the Nomenclature of scientific specialties; holding the International Scientific Conference “Library Science in the 21st Century: Content, Organisation, Digitalisation, and Scientometrics” (2021). Finally, the article highlights the release of two editions of a joint monograph titled “Scientific Research in Libraries: Topics, Organisation, and Presentation of Results” in 2021 and 2023.

Books in Perpetual Becoming: A Conversation with Serge Chamchinov

Books in Perpetual BecomingA Conversation with Serge Chamchinov Alice-Catherine Carls (bio) and Serge Chamchinov (bio) Serge Chamchinov is a man of many languages and a scientist, visual artist, writer, and book binder. He creates first, then self-promotes his books through book reviews, exhibitions, and poetry festivals. Through graphic reading and analytical typography, he develops recurring themes in a palimpsest of books, notebook series, or installations, each becoming part of an ephemeral structure, the "nomadic museum of the artist's book." Alice-Catherine Carls: Your work seems to use a method called "organic," as a plant that grows from a seed and develops little by little, especially one that is cultivated, to obtain not a fragile lily but a powerful and durable oak. The organic method in literature also starts from a seed. This is what I see in your work on Rimbaud. Starting from a poem, you develop books, translations, graphic works involving several authors, translators, and artists. The "drunken boat" seed considered as chaff by many of the poet's contemporaries survives and is doing well, thanks to your work of many years. The livre pauvre is a variant of the organic method that is more specific in scope since it is usually limited to one book with multiple authors. It too is for me one of the ways to shape the book of the future. Both the organic book and the livre pauvre have a genetic file and are unique, of course; their gathering of multiple voices is above all unifying, therefore of great magnitude. Click for larger view View full resolution Serge Chamchinov: For me, the term "organic" is mainly related to chemistry, which has a special place in my biography. I first studied chemistry at the university. The observation over long periods of time of experiments on the picturesque transformation of organic substances in flasks stimulated my imagination and gave me a taste for serial work. Even after I left this field to create my books, I kept this scientific spirit and interest in long-term experience. What fascinates me is the study of the smallest details and the development of a subject. Such an approach corresponds to my artistic projects like the one on Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat." On the other hand, the concept of "later genesis," which I often elaborate in my books, opens the way for the book to be "in perpetual becoming." In my creations, I want to touch and even direct the future of the work. The goal is to program certain aspects of the artist's book so that they continue after the work is finished. Knowing, for example, how the support's color and structure will change over time, we can anticipate the visual effect in relation to the image installed on this support. Carls: Your books are out of the ordinary by their size, their appearance, the quality of their paper; from the first glance, the aesthetic of the fonts and the illustrations takes precedence. Taking them in hand is already a "transport" to this elsewhere that any reading promises. What method do you use to produce these books? Chamchinov: The first thing that happened to me in my youth was the discovery of reading as a process that not only follows the writing or the topic at hand but also opens the self. Very often I read books as the invention of something else than what was written. My thoughts were quite far away during such readings, and I discovered a world of the "distant interior," in the words of Henri Michaux. It is the traces of those journeys that I fix in my artist's books. While reading, I would take a pencil and make drawings, and I called it a "graphic reading" method. I developed it in my first artist's book [End Page 50] entitled Clef graphique pour le Château de K. [Kafka], which featured sixty-six drawings. A little later, I came across an article by Hermann Hesse, namely his "Essay on Reading" published in 1920 in the Vienna newspaper Neues Wiener Tagblatt. This article confirmed my thought that there is a form of reading where the...

Сибирские книжные редкости: "Исторический журнал" Дмитрия Корнильева

The article considers Dmitry Korniliev’s Istoricheskiy zhurnal, ili Sobranie iz raznykh knig lyubopyt-nykh izvestiy, uveselitel’nykh povestey i anekdotov [Historical magazine, or Collection from various books of curious news, amusing stories and anecdotes] (1790). Over the years of its existence in the history of book culture, the publication has earned a reputation for book rarity (V.S. Sopikov, G.N. Gennadi, V.P. Semennikov). However, modern bibliology has not yet directly answered the question of whether it is a magazine or a book. The “Istoricheskiy zhurnal”, preserved in the Book Museum of the Russian State Library, and a digital copy of the publication from the library of the Tobolsk Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve provided material for the study. The novelty of the research is explained by its original methodological approach to the interpretation of the publication made in the context of the history of media and media transformations suggested by M. McLuhan and F. Barbier, who substantiated the idea of the difference between the book and magazine forms and the types of reading associated with them. Moreover, the integrative research methodology includes the structural-typological, historical-genetic and contextual types of analysis within the framework of bibliology. On the basis of the twofold criterion of the specifics of the magazine form (the mosaicity of its form associated with the phenomenon of collective authorship and fast reading designed for the collective reader), I show the transformation of the book form of I.E. Fisher’s Sibirskaya istoriya s samogo otkrytiya Sibiri do zavoevaniya sey zemli rossiyskim oruzhiem [Siberian history from the very discovery of Siberia to the conquest of this land by Russian weapons] into the Siberian digital mosaic of Korniliev’s “Istoricheskiy zhurnal”. The transformation process of the voluminous and chronically built “Sibirskaya istoriya” into a magazine mosaic of short educational and edifying “news” and moralizing stories is reconstructed. The “Istoricheskiy zhurnal” is studied as part of the formation of the Tobolsk type of a magazine from “Irtysh, prevrashchayushchiysya v Ipokrenu” [The Irtysh, turning into Hippocrene] to “Biblioteka uchenaya” [The scientific library]. The difference between the creative intention and the concept of the “Istoricheskiy zhurnal” in the dedication to A.V. Alyabiev and in the text of the surviving first part of the publication, included in the logic of the formation of the three Tobolsk magazines in their typological features: mosaic structure and educational, moral and entertaining character. I claim that the complex structuralthematic mosaic of the “Istoricheskiy zhurnal” does not correspond to the structural-typological features of the collection. The significance of the “Istoricheskiy zhurnal” as a publication that failed to use all of its potential is primarily explained by the fact that it became the first printed publication in Siberia in which Siberians displayed awareness of their own territorial identity. Owing to the “Istoricheskiy zhurnal”, the processes of transformation of the book and magazine forms in the initial period of the history of book printing are revealed.

Considering Individual Features of Stamps of Gold Tooling in Attribution of Russian Bindings of the 18th century

Book bindings of the 18th century, like all bindings of the period of hand press, are unique objects of individual labour, they were made to order and could be done much later than the date of printing. Russian bindings of this time are overwhelmingly anonymous, do not have the stamp and signature of the bookbinder or any written evidence of the binding customer, which makes it difficult to attribute them.The Department of Rare Books (Book Museum) of the Russian State Library (RSL) stores books by a major collector of the 18th century P.K. Khlebnikov, bound in the late 1750s — 1780s in one bookbinding workshop. The owner sought to record in super-exlibrises his career growth and changes in social status, and it helps to date the binding work within a frame of few years. The bindings were decorated with gold embossing using different stamps and roles. Over time, the bookbinderʼs tools were enriched, new stamps were used in embossing, and the old ones were put out of use. Linking the use of a particular stamp to a specific time helps to date other similar bindings made in the same workshop.So, impressions of stamps that came into use no earlier than 1775 were identified on the bindings of books from the library of Prince I.A. Vyazemsky. Identical prints are also found on bindings from other collections. The article provides an example of Russian edition of the 1730s in a luxurious morocco binding with a similar embossing. Information about the stamps used in P.K. Khlebnikovʼs bindings assisted to significantly adjust the time of the masterʼs work and date the binding to the second half of the 1770s — 1780s.Thus, it is obvious that the identification value of individual stamps of gold tooling when describing the bindings of the 18th century is high. The detailed description of decorative elements with photofixation of prints, the creation of a kind of stamp bank would make it possible to identify other arrays of bindings of close origin, and biographical knowledge about the owners would help both in the localization of hypothetically reconstructed bookbinding workshops and in more accurate dating of samples.

РОЛЬ ГЛУХІВСЬКОГО УЧИТЕЛЬСЬКОГО ІНСТИТУТУ У ВИНИКНЕННІ ТА СТАНОВЛЕННІ МЕТОДИКИ НАВЧАЛЬНИХ ПРИРОДНИЧИХ ЕКСКУРСІЙ (1874–1917)

The article presents the results of a long-term study of the historical heritage of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University, namely the museum of rare books. A number of assets that may be of interest to teachers and methodologists are presented here, including a lot of historical heritage in the context of training methods for future science teachers. Analyzing the relevant literary sources, we established the role of the Hlukhiv Teacher’s Institute in the emergence and formation of teacher training methods, in particular, field trips to nature.

Platform presence of audio guides by regions of Kazakhstan: quantitative and qualitative analysis

Object: Qualitative and quantitative research of audio guides in the context of the regions of Kazakhstan, presented on the izi.Travel platform.Methods: Bibliographic analysis, methods of systematization and grouping, a content analysis method, a qualitative research of the content of audio guides, audiovisual content and routes.Results: The main results of the research can be conditionally divided into two main groups: the first is the results of a bibliometric analysis, which showed that the number of publications directly related to the izi.Travel platform is small, while there are more than 70 for the query “audio guides”. In general, this suggests that the scientific direction under study is a new economic phenomenon that is gaining momentum and is relevant and necessary for the further development of excursion activities and the tourism economy; the second is the results of a qualitative and quantitative research of audio guides presented on the platform by regions: for example, their total number is 94, tours are presented by types - 53 units and audio guides for museums - 41 units; speaking of languages, the majority of audio guides are in Russian (81 audio tours), English (58 audio tours) and Kazakh (53 audio guides).The following locations are presented on the platform: Ganyushkino, Naurzum, Sarayshyk, Uralsk, Akkum, Aktau, Aktobe, Alma-Ata (Almaty), Arystanbab, Atyrau, Zhympity, Kabanbay, Karaganda, Kokshetau, Kostanay, Mikhailovka, Nur-Sultan, Petropavlovsk, Rudny, Satpayev, Semey, Taraz, Turkestan, Shymkent. Qualitative analysis showed that, in general, many audio guides are presented in a standard way, but, as a rule, they contain quite capacious and complex information about objects; at the same time, there are routes that are creative and unique, including: the city of Almaty – “Museum of rare books”, “SPUE Museum of Folk Instruments named after Ykhlas”, “Excursion to the Museum of Arts named after. A. Kasteyev with audio descriptions* ”, “Metro Almaty”, “Tourist bike route”, “Multimedia center of traditional music”, “Women of the Great Steppe”; the city of Kostanay – “Museum of computer technology”, “In the footsteps of the teacher-educator Ibray Altynsarin”; the city of Karaganda – “Murals of the city of Karaganda”, etc.Conclusions: Despite the available audiovisual routes through tourist sites and territories of the country, their number is small; at the same time, several tours have not been developed sufficiently, which affects the overall quality of the content listened to by the tourist.

Odessa period in the creative activity of the famous Ukrainian librarian L. Khavkinа

The proposed research is substantively and conceptually related to research on the history of domestic library science and is directly devoted to the methodological and educational activities of the famous Ukrainian librarian L. Khavkinа in Odessa 1925 year. The article uses authentic materials stored in the funds of the Odessa Regional State Archive and in the funds of the Book Museum of the Odessa State Scientific Library. Among them are such unique documents as the minutes of the meetings of the presidium of the Library Association of Odessa in 1925 year, the report of the Bibinspektura on conducting a seminar with the participation of L. Khavkinа and, finally, own financial receipts made by L. Khavkinа. These documents state that the information provided during the methodological meetings by L. Khavkinа made an unforgettable impression on the Odessa library community and encouraged it to further the fruitful development of the Odessa library business and prompted the centralization of Soviet libraries in the Odessa region and further centralized exchange of methodological, scientific and educational, library and bibliographic literature and information. However, unfortunately, L. Khavkinа's stay in Odessa and holding a library seminar was accidental and took place on the recommendation of Agitprom Gubkom and the Odessa library community did not make a special professional impression on L. Khavkinа, so in the field of professional research interests of the famous librarian further was not included.

Marginalia in Parisian Historical Publications of the Second Half of the 16th Century in Russian and Franch Libraries

The article is devoted to the study of reader’s practices related to the several centuries of existence of French historical books of the second half of the 16th century, the books’ place in people’s lives and attitude to them. The study’s source base is represented by a body of identified book marginalia from the copies of Parisian publications stored in the National Library of France and the Rare Books Department (Book Museum) of the Russian State Library. The handwritten notes (396 marginalia have been identified and are being introduced into scientific circulation) that are dated belong to the second half of the 16th—20th centuries inclusive. In the second half of the 16th century, printed books in France became the determinant source of intellectual thought, and their role in the lives of educated people increased significantly. The spread of printed books, their influence on the minds of ordinary people and their authority in society contributed to the appearance of a large number of handwritten notes made by readers at different times and on different occasions.The author offers his own content-based classification of the body of marginalia identified by him and gives a detailed description of the studied material. There are three main groups of the marginalia: the records related to the content of the book, the records related to the book itself, and the records not related to the book. The first group consists of 2 types of records: textual records and comments. The second group is divided into 3 types: library records, owner’s records, and other informational records related to the content of the book. A separate group consists of the informational records that are not related to the book.The analysis made it possible to assess the information value and potential of marginalia as historical and psychological sources that allow (in combination with other sources) to study, in a historical context, the cultural and mental characteristics of people of different eras, the existence of books in society, and the book and library traditions of different regions of Europe.

Printed Blank Forms of the Cyrillic Printed Letters of 1759 from Bishop of Pinsk and Turov George Bulgak in the Collection of the Russian State Library

Printed Blank Forms are poorly studied historical sources. They were published in almost every printing house, often in large editions; however, due to the specifics of the purpose, they were poorly preserved. Many of the printed editions have not reached our days. You can learn about their existence from archival documents. A number of editions are known in a single copy. The Research Department of Rare Books (Book Museum) of the Russian State Library has two Printed Blank Forms. These are the Certificates of Ordination from the Bishop of Pinsk and Turov, George Bulgak. These are the only known copies of the editions. They were issued to priest Vasily Shemetil on July 15, 1759 in Pinsk and stamped with the Episcopal seal. They came from the Vilnius Public Library. Due to the small number of complex studies of such sources, the article provides the detailed description of them, reveals the content at the level of the edition (printed blank form) and the copy (handwritten text); for the first time there is undertaken publication of the texts of the certificates. Moreover, the authors consider the actual problems of the bibliographic description of these publications: different bibliographers (F.N. Dobryansky, A.I. Milovidov, G.Y. Golenchenko, Y.A. Labyntsev) described and attributed these editions differently (Mogilev and Suprasl were mentioned as the place of publication). Being unique sources, they attracted attention of bibliographers, but were not used at all by historians and other researchers of book culture. The authors come to the conclusion that the attribution of the publication of letters in the printing house of the Annunciation Monastery in Suprasl, proposed by Y.A. Labyntsev, looks the most convincing today. The study emphasizes the importance of the considered documents that are the only known examples of printed Greek Catholic Certificates of Ordination of the 18th century. Since the life and activity of Georgy Bulgak himself, who became the Archimandrite of the Annunciation Monastery in Suprasl, remains practically unexplored in Russian historiography, the article presents his biography, focuses on this period of his activity and his great contribution to the development of book publishing in the monastery printing house, which printed books in Slavic, Polish and Latin languages.

Printed Blank Forms of the Cyrillic Printed Letters of 1759 from Bishop of Pinsk and Turov George Bulgak in the Collection of the Russian State Library

Printed Blank Forms are poorly studied historical sources. They were published in almost every printing house, often in large editions; however, due to the specifics of the purpose, they were poorly preserved. Many of the printed editions have not reached our days. You can learn about their existence from archival documents. A number of editions are known in a single copy. The Research Department of Rare Books (Book Museum) of the Russian State Library has two Printed Blank Forms. These are the Certificates of Ordination from the Bishop of Pinsk and Turov, George Bulgak. These are the only known copies of the editions. They were issued to priest Vasily Shemetil on July 15, 1759 in Pinsk and stamped with the Episcopal seal. They came from the Vilnius Public Library. Due to the small number of complex studies of such sources, the article provides the detailed description of them, reveals the content at the level of the edition (printed blank form) and the copy (handwritten text); for the first time there is undertaken publication of the texts of the certificates. Moreover, the authors consider the actual problems of the bibliographic description of these publications: different bibliographers (F.N. Dobryansky, A.I. Milovidov, G.Y. Golenchenko, Y.A. Labyntsev) described and attributed these editions differently (Mogilev and Suprasl were mentioned as the place of publication). Being unique sources, they attracted attention of bibliographers, but were not used at all by historians and other researchers of book culture. The authors come to the conclusion that the attribution of the publication of letters in the printing house of the Annunciation Monastery in Suprasl, proposed by Y.A. Labyntsev, looks the most convincing today. The study emphasizes the importance of the considered documents that are the only known examples of printed Greek Catholic Certificates of Ordination of the 18th century. Since the life and activity of Georgy Bulgak himself, who became the Archimandrite of the Annunciation Monastery in Suprasl, remains practically unexplored in Russian historiography, the article presents his biography, focuses on this period of his activity and his great contribution to the development of book publishing in the monastery printing house, which printed books in Slavic, Polish and Latin languages.

Book Marks of the Personal Library of the German Bibliophile Prince George of Anhalt

For many years, the Rare Books Department (Book Museum) of the Russian State Library has been conducting up-to-date work on the description of ex-libris, which contributes to the disclosure of the Department’s collections. The main goal of this research is to identify, record, study, publish, and thereby show the variety and richness of the ownership marks found on books. This article is devoted to the book marks of the German bibliophile Prince George III of Anhalt (1507—1553) from the collection of the Russian State Library. In the Russian-language research literature, Prince George’s book marks have not been considered before. The highly valued private library, later named after the owner — “Georgs-Bibliothek”, used to be part of the Land Library in Dessau (Germany). A small part of this famous book collection came after World War II to the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR and is now stored in the Book Museum. On the example of the small fragment of Prince George’s famous library, the article traces the gradual appearance and development of the unique ex-libris of this collection, reveals the literary and bibliophile interests of the owner, and establishes the circle of his communication. In the course of the study, about a hundred owner’s marks were recorded, thanks to which there were identified more than 120 publications from the personal collection of Prince George of Anhalt. The article presents the main types of its ex-libris (handwritten, gift, and super-ex-libris), which are reproduced and described in detail.

Children’s Books of the Great Patriotic War Period Stored in the Book Museum of the Russian State Library

The article endeavors to reconstruct and present a collection of children’s books published during the Great Patriotic War, stored in the Rare Books Department (Book Museum) of the Russian State Library. The term “collection” in this case is conditional, since children’s books of that period were not acquired specifically and are not stored as a separate independent collection. They belong to the three collections — Illustrated Children’s Books, Serial Publications, and A.K. Tarasenkov’s Collection. Such storage of books of the same subject in different collections has its own specifics.The conducted research considered books published strictly in 1941—1945. Both edge years — 1941 and 1945 — are presented in full, since the war, its premonition, beginning, end, and the features of life in the post-war months, had left their mark on the themes and design of both pre-war and post-war books.On the occasion of the 70th and 75th anniversary of the Victory, in May 2015 and June 2020, the Book Museum of the Russian State Library held two mini-exhibitions dedicated to children’s books of the Great Patriotic War period. The exhibitions introduced visitors to the publications of 1941—1945, as well as to literary works that had been published in the post-war period but written during the war, hot on the traces of the heroic events. Still, the books presented at the mini-exhibitions do not exhaust the entire volume of publications of that period stored in the Book Museum.The Rare Books Department has identified 204 items that can be combined in a thematic collection called “Children’s Books of the Great Patriotic War Period”. Due to some peculiarities inherent in this collection, we cannot draw any conclusions about the repertoire of children’s books of the war period in general, but we can picture the repertoire, geography and circulation in relation to fiction for children.