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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: G-21

Last update of repository: 22 March 2020

Sankt-Peterburgskaia gosudarstvennaia teatral'naia biblioteka (SPbGTB)


Otdel redkoi knigi, rukopisnykh, arkhivnykh i ikonograficheskikh materialov
[Division of Rare Books, Manuscripts, Archival and Iconographic Materials]

Telephone: +7 812 571-61-04

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://sptl.spb.ru/collections/archiv...  (Archival fond)

Opening hours: M–F 11:00–19:00, Sa 11:00–18:00

Head: Marina Igorevna Tsapovetskaia (tel. +7 812 571-61-04)


Holdings

Total: 19 fonds; ca. 153,000 units; 18th–20th cc. (scattered from 16th–17th cc.)
(7 fonds unarranged)
manuscript fond—65,526 units; sketches—87,392 units

The library’s extensive manuscript collections are particularly rich in materials pertaining to the history of the prerevolutionary Russian theater. They are subdivided into several principal sections or fonds.
        The “Russian Fond” contains all plays (and in many cases promptbooks) in the repertory of Russian dramatic troupes, dating from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, the imperial collection of plays from the theater section of the Palei Palace library (18th–19th cc.), and the theater library of K.P. Larin (late 19th–early 20th cc.), including manuscript, typescript, and lithographic copies of plays. The “French Fond” includes plays in French and Italian from the repertory of the St. Petersburg State French Troupe (19th–early 20th cc.), and also the collection of Prince A.Ia. Lobanov-Rostovskii (16th–19th cc.). There are also plays in other foreign languages, including English, Bulgarian, and modern Greek, among others. The “Repertory Library of the Former German Capital (stolichnaia) Troupe” includes plays in German, and a collection of librettos for opera and ballet (19th–early 20th cc.).
        The “Censorship Fond” (42,000 units; 1865–1917) consists of copies of all submitted plays with censor’s marks “Permitted” or “Banned.” In addition to plays in Russian, there are also plays in Ukrainian, Belorussian, and languages of other nationalities of the Russian Empire, including Armenian, Georgian, Tatar, Yiddish, Estonian, and Latvian, among others. Considered unique in terms of its completeness and historical significance, the fond includes autograph manuscript texts, stage versions, adaptations, promptbooks, and stage-directors’ copies of plays by A.S. Pushkin, A.S. Griboedov, N.V. Gogol', A.N. Ostrovskii, A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, I.S. Turgenev, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L.N. Tolstoi, A.P. Chekhov, A.M. Gor'kii, and others. The fond is intensively used for the preparation of academic collections of classic Russian literary works.
        The Artistic Production Division contains the collection of the Imperial Theater Production(montirovochnaia) Library, consisting of authentic set and costume designs, furniture, and other props relating to theater productions (17th c.–1917), together with various graphic materials on theater architecture and interiors. There are drawings and production sketches of the most distinguished stage designers from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, such as Pietro Gottardo di Gonzaga, Alfred (A.A.) Roller, K.A. Korovin, A.Ia. Golovin, Léon Bakst (pseud. of L.S. Rozenberg), A.N. Benois (Benua), and B.I. Anisfel'd (Anisfeldt), among others.
        Documentary materials of the Manuscript Division include the editorial records of the journal Biriuch Petrogradskikh gosudarstvennykh teatrov (Herald of Petrograd State Theaters). Personal papers of theater personalities from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries include those of N.F. Sazonov, P.V. Samoilov, and E.I. Time, along with the private collection of the distinguished twentieth-century ballet-master M.M. Fokin (Michel Fokine), donated to the library by his son.
        The “Epistolary” section includes approximately 3,000 personal letters of literary and theater personalities of the eighteenth through twentieth centuries, such as Voltaire, Maria Taglioni, Ernesto Rossi, M.S. Shchepkin, P.S. Mochalov, N.A. Nekrasov, A.N. Ostrovskii, L.N. Tolstoi, Eleonora Duse, Enrico Caruso, I.E. Repin, F.I. Chaliapin (Shaliapin), V.F. Komissarzhevskaia, M.N. Ermolova, and M.G. Savina, among others.
        Since 1934 the library has collected press clippings relating to theaters throughout the former USSR.


Working conditions:
Usually materials are delivered to the special reading room the day they are ordered.

Reference facilities:
Reference and bibliography facilities consist of system of catalogues and card files, some limited for staff use and others for readers. The manuscript materials are recorded in the official staff general alphabetical catalogue. There are separate alphabetical catalogues covering the Censorship Fond, Russian plays, librettos of operas, musical comedies, and ballets. Additional card catalogues provide names of plays in Russian and foreign languages. There are alphabetical and systematic subject catalogues of the Artistic Production Division and of the Manuscript Fond, and a catalogue of the K.P. Larin library.

Copy facilities:
Xerox facilities are available.


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted