Russian libraries: Exhibition “The first collections of the Imperial Public Library: manuscripts of the Zaluski” in Saint-Petersburg

February 13, 2014 in the Department of manuscripts of the National Library of Russia will be held the opening of the exhibition “The first collections of the Imperial Public Library: manuscripts of the Zaluski”.

The history of the Imperial Public Library since its founding is inextricably linked to a precious asset of the Polish people – the Zaluski library. Formed at the end of the XVII-XVIII centuries by Polish state and church leaders Zaluski the library was considered one of the largest private book collections in Europe and included more than 400,000 books, 40,000 prints and about 20,000 manuscripts. In 1747 by the decision of the owners the library became public, and in 1774, after the death of Józef Andrzej Zaluski – the state. The Zaluski Library was so valuable that after the suppression by A. V. Suvorov of the T. Kosciuszko uprising in November 1794 and the third partition of Poland, Catherine II ordered to take her from Warsaw to St. Petersburg as a major trophy.

When in June 1795 the books by Zaluski arrived in the capital, there was a question about placing an ambitious collection. This event led to the speedy construction of a special building for the Public Library, a plan which was filed institutions by Count A. S. Stroganov for consideration as early as the Empress in 1766 after the completion of construction in 1801 the Zaluski collection was moved to a new building and was the basis of funds of the Imperial Public Library.

The manuscripts of Zaluski arrived in "Manuscript Depository" along with handwritten collection of P. P. Dubrovsky and were among the first manuscript collections of the new library. They remained in Russia until the beginning of the 1920, and then under the terms of the Treaty of Riga on March 18, 1921 were returned to Poland. The public library contains a small number of codes of Polish collections for which the Polish Republic received compensation. The events of the World War II were detrimental to the Załuski Library. In August and September 1944, it is almost completely lost in the fire, repeating the fate of the rich collection of antiquities - Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Only about 2,200 manuscripts from 20,000 remained - 1851 manuscript in Poland and about 300 - in St. Petersburg in the National Library of Russia.

The exhibition in the Manuscripts Department, prepared for the anniversary of the opening of the library, includes handwritten codes of the famous book collection of the Zaluski. This is the manuscript of the IX-XVIII centuries in European and Oriental languages, the most diverse topics and composition. Given belonging to the owners of the higher clergy, the most widely Zaluski presented books of Scripture, liturgical manuscripts and treatises on theology. A significant part of the collection consists of handwritten manuscripts of the XVI-XVIII centuries on the history of Poland, legal collections, treatises on ecclesiastical and civil law, medical and mathematical manuscripts, works of historical and literary genres.

For the first time library visitors will be able to see an exhibition dedicated to the rich collection of the handwritten part of the Zaluski collection, which shows the codes in all the variety of genres.