Imperial Public Library Research Articles

A Fragment <i>National Library of Russia Greek 87:</i> A New Find of the New Tropologion

The article identifies a hymnographic 8th–9th centuries fragment National Library of Russia Greek 87, brought in 1859 from the Christian Orient by Constantine Tischendorf and sold by him to the Imperial Public Library, as a witness of the new Hierosolymitan tropologion. The folio contains seven hymns for the Cheesefare Week of Great Lent. It is the second as of today, after Sin. Gr. NF MG 56+5, such a collection in Greek, i.e. of Quadragesima, has been identified. The texts are published for the first time with a Russian translation and accompanied by a commentary.

Husain Faizhanov in the History of the Russian Oriental Studies

This article summaries the results of research on the scientific activity of Husain Faizkhanov (1823–1866), especially taking into account the studies conducted during the passing year 2023. The expansion of the range of materials involved has led to the acquisition of new facts, as well as made it possible to revise some ideas about the general chronology of H. Faizkhanov’s life and rethink his direct contribution to various fields of oriental studies. The article shows that the arrival of H. Faizkhanov in Saint Petersburg, which took place at least in 1853, had already led him to close interaction with the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences and he was involved in the transcription of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages, consistently engaged in this work for many years. Faizkhanov was engaged by B. A. Dorn to compile the catalogue of Oriental manuscripts of the Imperial Public Library. Besides, it was with Faizkhanov that the first catalogue of Arabic manuscripts of the Asiatic Museum was started, which was only later completed by V. R. Rosen. The article also considers some circumstances of the initial period Faizkhanov’s life and, in this connection, the factors that influenced the formation of his personality.

«Открыта на пользу общую…» 210 лет со дня открытия Российской национальной библиотеки для читателей

Opened to readers on January 2 (14), 1814, Imperial Public Library (now National Library of Russia) celebrates 210 years since the fulfillment of this occasion in 2024. The historical path of improving service to readers in this library throughout this period is traced. Attention is drawn to significant dates in its development, noted both by the interested public and the authorities. Important stages in the development and study of Library readers and other areas of scientific research are highlighted. The main numerical indicators of the activities of National Library of Russia as of 2023 are presented. Ways to improve service to readers are indicated, considering the challenges presented to national culture in modern conditions of social development.

Инженерный замок и Публичная библиотека: парадоксы истории

The year 2024 marks the 210th anniversary of the opening of the Imperial Public Library (National Library of Russia) to readers. During this time, due to the continuous influx of literature and the increasing number of visitors, the number of buildings occupied by the library has grown. In the 19th– 20th centuries the St. Petersburg public and state authorities considered the possibility of transferring the book collections and reading rooms to the Engineering Castle, which since 1822 had been occupied by the Main engineering school (since 1855 – Nikolaevsky) and the Engineering department (since 1862 – the Main engineering department). In the article, based on documents from central and departmental archives, some of which are introduced into the scientific circulation for the first time, as well as materials of the periodical press, analyzed the full history of the projects of moving the Public Library to one of the most famous palaces of Saint-Petersburg.

Sources of the Literary and Intellectual Landscape of Central Asian Khanates: Jura Bik’s First Library

Bik, the ruler of the Kitab Domain under the Bukharan Emirate and later a general of the Russian army. The collection in question was confiscated as a war trophy following the capture of the city of Kitab by Russian troops in 1870 and donated by the first Governor-General of Turkestan, K.P. von Kaufman to the Imperial Public Library (now NLR) in St. Petersburg. An inventory of said collection (76 books), as well as the one assembled by the orientalist A.L. Kuhn during the same Shahrisabz expedition (24 books), was discovered in 2016 in the archives of the National Library of Russia. The current article briefly covers Jura Bik’s biography, provides a general outline of his collection, and sets out to identify the manuscripts listed in the mentioned inventory, based upon their published descriptions and the author’s own materials.

Эрнест Львович Радлов – сотрудник Императорской Публичной библиотеки (1880–1890-е гг.)

The genealogical data and family ties of the famous Russian historian of philosophy Ernest Ľvovich Radlov, which were reflected in the formation of him as a prominent scientist, are traced. His natural and educated in the family inclinations to engage in research in the field of history and book science are revealed. For the first time, his activity in the Imperial Public Library in the 1880–1890s was studied in detail. His role in the improvement of the main processes of work in the Department of Philosophy and Pedagogy subordinated to him is studied. Reviews of readers who used his help while working in the Library are given. The issues of E. Ľ. Radlov’s formation as a professional library worker are revealed, which reasonably led to his subsequent directorship in the Library in the first years of Soviet power.

Становление выставочной и экскурсионной деятельности в Императорской Публичной библиотеке

The way of development in the field of library and exhibition activities of the Imperial Public Library (hereinafter – IPB) in the period from 1850 to 1917 is presented. The role of IPB employees M. A. Korf, V. V. Stasov, V. I. Sobolshchikov in the development of the first methods for organizing exhibitions in the Library is characterized. The topic of creating the first Library showcases designed by librarian and architect IPB V. I. Sobolshchikov is highlighted. IPB’s participation in Russian and foreign exhibitions is reflected. The history of the first sightseeing tours of the library halls with visits to temporary and permanent exhibitions is highlighted. The «Guide to the Imperial Public Library» created by the staff of the IPB, containing a brief history of the creation of the Library, information about exhibitions and excursions, as well as rules for the use of IPB funds, etc., is considered.

Early Qur’āns of Jean‑Joseph Marcel. I: Collector and His Collection

French orientalist and printer Jean-Joseph Marcel (1776—1854) acquired a huge number of manucscripts and other artifacts during his stay in Alexandria and Cairo as a member of the Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt. The collections of Marcel were dispersed after his death, and only early Qur’an fragments survive as a single body, having been bought in 1864 by the Imperial Public Library (the National Library of Russia of today). Present article focuses on the biography and publishing activity of J.-J. Marcel as well as on the history of his collection, which consist of 130 items of the 7th—12th centuries and one of the 14th century.

Директор Императорской Публичной библиотеки Д. П. Бутурлин

Director of the Imperial Public Library D. P. Buturlin left behind contradictory, but mostly negative memories of his contemporaries, based on his activities as chair of the censorship Committee on April 2, 1848, which went down in history as the “Buturlin Committee”. In the shadow of his position as the chief censor of the country, his fruitful activity as director of the first national library in Russia remained. The article presents new archival materials, important testimonies of the Library staff who served under him, and an attempt is made to objectively reproduce all the good undertakings of this director and point out the miscalculations he made.

Житие преподобного Гермогена, устроителя Киренского и Албазинского монастырей. Уникальный памятник сибирской агиографии середины XIX века

Hieromonk Hermogenes is one of the outstanding ascetics of the Russian Orthodox Church who carried out their ministry in Eastern Siberia. Two monasteries were founded here in the second half of the XVII century by his works. He was a good shepherd for the Russian first settlers of the Amur region, showing an example of Christian humility and piety. Immediately after the death of Hermogenes (1690), his popular veneration began, and in 1858 his life appeared.This is a handwritten text made up of two words spoken on the days of the memory of the righteous. In 1910, the manuscript was acquired by the Imperial Public Library. In this edition, for the first time, the full commented text of the Life is published. A preliminary analysis of this document made it possible to identify the sources used in its compilation and to establish the identity of the hagiographer. At the same time, a significant amount of historical facts contained in the text led to the preparation of a voluminous corpus of notes clarifying, supplementing or refuting this information. "The Life of St. Hermogenes" is a unique monument of Siberian hagiography of the middle of the XIX century. In addition to the obvious historical and cultural value, it is a convincing confirmation of the widespread popular veneration of Hermogenes in pre-revolutionary Russia and can serve as a good reason for his church glorification.

Александр Иванович Красовский – библиотекарь Императорской Публичной библиотеки

The name of Alexander Ivanovich Krasovsky – the odious censor of the Nikolaev era – is well known to the enlightened reader. Like anecdotes, there are his unfounded nit-picking of writers and poets of the first quarter of the 19th century, interference in the personal lives of subordinates, the desire to suspect and exterminate sedition in the most harmless statements. At the same time, his impeccable service in the Imperial Public Library for 23 years, his participation in the solemn opening of the Imperial Public Library for readers on January 2 (14), 1814, and the preparation of reports for the first years of its activity remain in the shadow. Krasovsky’s role as one of the founders of reader studies and recommendatory bibliography in the first national library of Russia, its first historiographer deserves special attention.

Chinese Album from Paris in the National Library of Russia

This article deals with the album of Chinese drawings produced for export in the late 18th early 19th cc. Originating from Guangzhou, 84 color pictures represent craftsmen, petty traders and street actors. Sixteen of them concur by subject and composition with the engravings published by G.H. Mason who named Pu Qwa as an artist of the originals. Similar drawings can be found in the album of stasiatiska Museet in Stockholm; other ones, close to ours in style, have been included into the album of Capitan Lisianskii. The Parisian album was compiled and bound in Paris; it was on sale in the Dondey-Dupr bookshop, and in 1828 Heinrich Julius Klaproth inscribed it with his hand certifying the fact that the drawings had been produced by a Chinese painter (what was probably doubted). It is still unclear how the album reached the Imperial Public library (National library of Russia of today) in Saint-Petersburg. However, it had happened before 1852 when the academician Bernhard Dorn published his catalogue in which the album was described under the number 798.

Михаил Иванович Антоновский – основатель Императорской Публичной библиотеки

The history of the creation of the Imperial Public Library for more than two centuries has continued to excite researchers of Russian culture., Monographs have been created dedicated to the figures who stood at the head of the emerging Library in the first years of its creation in the late 18th – early 19th centuries. Meanwhile, the figure of Mikhail Ivanovich Antonovsky, a writer, historian, translator, one of the most enlightened people of that time, remained outside the sphere of attention for many years. He was destined to live and create in a difficult time of Russian history – during the time of N. I. Novikov, A. N. Radishchev, the spread of Freemasonry in Russia, the government’s reaction to the Great French Revolution, during the reign of three emperors – Catherine II, Paul I and Alexander I, who understood in different ways the role and place of the national library that was being created, to fight foreign dominance in it, to prevent its plundering and disbandment

Русинская тематика в работах П.Д. Драганова

Pyotr Danilovich Draganov (February 1 (13), 1857 – February 7, 1928), a native of Bessarabia, Russian philologist, historian, ethnographer, bibliographer, and teacher. Born into a family of Bulgarian colonists in the village Comrat of Bessarabian region, he graduated from the Bulgarian Central School in Comrat (1875), then studied at the Chișinău progymnasium, the provincial gymnasium (1875–1877) and the Kharkov gymnasium (1877–1880). After graduating from the gymnasium, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of the Imperial Kharkov University (1880–1882), then continued his studies at the Imperial St. Petersburg University, graduating in 1885 with a candidate’s degree. In 1885–1887, he taught general history and Church Slavonic language at the St. Cyril and Methodius Male Gymnasium (Thessaloniki, Macedonia). In 1888, he was appointed teacher of the Russian language and literature of the Comrat real school. Since 1893, he taught Russian at the Chișinău Women’s Gymnasium. In 1896, he became a junior assistant librarian at the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg, in charge of the category of Slavs and Galician-Russian books of the Manuscript Department of the library. Due to the difficult financial situation, he had to resign from the library and return to teach Russian at the Comrat real school. In 1906–1912, P.D. Draganov worked as an inspector of a real school in Astrakhan, director of a teacher’s seminary in the village Rovnoe of the Samara province. In 1913, he returned to Bessarabia and was appointed director of the male gymnasium in Cahul. When Bessarabia was occupied by Romania, the Romanian authorities issued a decree on the preservation of the gymnasium and proposed to P.D. Draganov to remain its director. However, he decided to return to his native Comrat, where he taught Bulgarian at the Comrat real school until retirement. P.D. Draganov is the author of over 100 historical, literary, ethnographic, philological, bibliographic and critical works. His articles were published in the “Journal of the Ministry of Public Education”, “Historical Bulletin”, “Izvestia of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the Department of Russian Language and Literature”, “Russian Philological Bulletin” and others. Some of his works have remained unpublished. Most of P.D. Draganov’s studies focus on Bessarabian and Balkan themes. He wrote many works about A.S. Pushkin. Draganov was the founder of Macedonian studies in Russia. One ofhis most important works is “The Macedonian-Slavic Collection” (Issue 1. St. Petersburg, 1894), which received many reviews. Another well-known work of his is the compilation “A.S. Pushkin in Fifty Languages, i.e. Translations from A.S. Pushkin into 50 languages and dialects of the world. A Bibliographic Wreath on the Monument to A.S. Pushkin, Woven for the Centenary of His Birth, May 26, 1799 – May 26, 1899 with a Portrait of the Poet” (St. Petersburg, 1899). Draganov also participated in the compilation of the Bulgarian-Russian Dictionary, published the first universal index Bessarabiana, where he listed the sources and literature published over 100 years since the annexation of Bessarabia to Russia. Among the numerous works by P.D. Draganov, there are studies about Rusins.

Ольга Дмитриевна Голубева: к 100-летию со дня рождения

In 2021 we mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of O. D. Golubeva, a bibliologist, Doctor of Philology, whose entire working life relates to M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library. For 35 years she was the deputy director of the library for scientific work. The article recreates the biographical sketch of the scientist, reveals the significance for Russian literary criticism of her research on the publishing activities of M. Gorky and several publishing houses of the early twentieth century. Special attention is paid to the role of O. D. Golubeva in the creation of a whole series of works devoted to the history of the Library, including biographical sketches of the figures of the Imperial Public Library. The role of the scientist in the creation of the school of historical biography in the National Library of Russia is determined.

И. И. Горностаев – архитектор, историк искусств, педагог: к 200-летию со дня рождения

The theme of preserving national culture is associated with the work of the famous architect and art historian Ivan Ivanovich Gornostaev (1821–1874), who popularized Russian culture and its unique originality. The article examines the activities of I. I. Gornostaev as the architect of the Imperial Public Library (his main works are a special room for storing incunabula («Faust’s Cabinet») and the New Reading Room (together with the architect V. I. Sobolshchikov)), as well as Saint-Petersburg University (according to his designs, a building was built for a botanical laboratory with a greenhouse, and the building was rebuilt «for playing ball» to accommodate a library, a physics study and an observatory there). He is the author of two projects – the Iversky Cathedral of the NikoloBabaevsky Monastery and the Kazan Cathedral of the Transfiguration Ust Medveditsky Monastery. Reflected his achievements in teaching as the author of the first systematic course in the history of fine arts in Russia. The role of I. I. Gornostaev in the study of the history of art of the Ancient World, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is shown.

“German Parties” in the Russian Science of the 19th Century

The article is the devoted to the issue of German and Russian groups opposition that arose in various scientific institutions and associations in Russia in the 19th century, such as Russian Geographical Society, Russian Archeological Society, Imperial Public Library and others. The author examines the influence of those groups on the development of certain scientific lines of research, which demonstrated itself in the choice of the scientific language, scientific priorities and strategies, also very often – in the choice of scientific methodology, and finally – in the formation of scientific schools. All this confirms the ideas of the Slavophils and N.Ya. Danilevsky formulated in the 19th century regarding the influence on science of national consciousness and specific worldviews of the scientists.

Отделение изящных искусств и технологии в Публичной библиотеке (1850–1930 гг.)

A new stage in the life of the Imperial Public Library (now the National Library of Russia) began in 1850, when M. A. Korf, who carried out the organizational restructuring of the Library, became its director for many years and determined the order of its activities. The Library began to function on the principle of separate departments. From the largest meetings in various specialties, the departments turned into stable administrative units. For the fi rst time, the history of the Department of Fine Arts and Technology, containing unique collections of prints, lithographs, notes, and others, was recreated in detail. The activities of V. I. Sobolshchikov, V. V. Stasov, I. I. Gornostaev, N. D. Chechulin, L. A. Sakketti, M. L. Lozinsky, who served in it, are disclosed. The order of preparing its catalogs and the organization of large collections, in particular the Peter the Great Gallery, are analyzed. The reasons for the liquidation of the departmental system of the Public Library and the replacement of its functional one is substantiated.

Отделения в классе «Филология» в Публичной библиотеке (1850–1930 гг.)

Отделения в классе «Филология» в Публичной библиотеке (1850–1930 гг.)

ПРЕДЫСТОРИЯ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ИМАГОЛОГИИ: ТРАДИЦИЯ КАК ЦЕЛЕУКАЗАНИЕ

Focusing on the history of Russian imagology, the article aims at identifying the origins of the imagological interests in research and public thought in Russia in the first and second thirds of the 20th century as well as research approaches of that time that may be required by modern imagology. This analytical insight arises from the endeavor of contemporary scholars to update and develop the imagology paradigm. The Patriotic War of 1812 and the entry of Russian troops into Paris in 1814 gave a powerful impulse to the imagological interests in Russian society. These events highlighted the irrational nature of European stereotypes and provided an opportunity for the Russian intellectual elite to observe how the European image of Russia evolves depending on the historical situation, which, in its turn, induced the Russians to collect and conceptualise the information about the image of Russia in European texts of different epochs. The Rossica Department in the Imperial Public Library was opened for the scholars to do bibliographic research of foreign publications about Russia. Commenting foreign essays about Russia was an important part of Russian academic and journalistic activity. Such publications regularly appeared in Syn Otechestva, Otechestvennye zapiski, Severnyy Arkhiv, Sovremennik, Biblioteka dlya chteniya, Russkiy vestnik, and Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniya. The first imagological research proper was V.A. Klyuchevsky’s Skazaniya inostrantsev o Moskovskom gosudarstve [Legends of Foreigners about the Moscow State, 1866]. Without a critical analysis of foreign sources, the historian uses excerpts from different foreign texts to reconstruct an integral image of the Moscow state in the European consciousness. Although the first Russian imagological researches appeared in history, they laid the basis for the development of literary criticism. The book collection “Rossica” allowed Russian and foreign scholars (M.P. Alekseev, B.L. Modzalevsky, E.V. Tarle, M. Kadot) to study the Western literary opinion about Russia. Yu.M. Lotman relied on the imagological observations made by V.A. Klyuchevsky and his followers. Methodology of Soviet imagological research in literary criticism (M.P. Alekseev, B.G. Reizov, A.K. Vinogradov) was guided by the principles of history. These facts give grounds to speak about the formation of the Russian tradition of imagological researches, which has two characteristics: 1) following the principle of historicity and 2) focus on the functioning of the image of Russia in European literature of different epochs. In this context, it seems relevant for the Russian imagological works to focus on the phenomenon of “reverse reception” in Russian literature of the 19th century, that is on the Russian writers’ endeavor to comprehend the European image of Russia (to create a “meta-image”) and to oppose this image with their own holistic idea of Russia and its national features.