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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: H-235

Last update of repository: 18 March 2020

Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh (GE)


Tsentral'naia nauchnaia biblioteka—Kabinet redkoi knigi
[Central Scientific Library—Cabinet of Rare Books]

Telephone: +7 812 710-96-64

Fax: +7 812 710-90-52

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/p...

Opening hours: Tu–Sa 10:00–17:00

Head: Evgenii Viktorovich Platonov (tel. +7 812 710-96-64)


Holdings

Total: 4 (collections) fonds; ca. 450 units; 12th c.–20th c.
Slavonic-Rus' MS books—63 units (14th–19th cc.); Russian secular manuscripts—214 units (18th–20th cc.); foreign manuscripts—ca. 120 units (11th–19th cc.); charters, diplomas, patents—ca. 40 units (13th–20th cc.)

Most interesting in the Cabinet of Rare Books is the collection of Slavonic and Russian manuscripts and manuscript books (14th–19th cc.), including several on parchment. The earliest of these is a parchment copy of the Chronicle of George Amartol (Georgios Amartolos, late 14th–early 15th cc.). There are also early tales and legends, a collected codex of Arkhangel'sk Deacon Lavrentii Ivanov, the spiritual Tsvetnik (Florilegium, or anthology of edifactory texts) of Hierodeacon Gerasim Belogradets, a late seventeenth-century illuminated manuscript of the Gospels, legends of the Icons of the Virgin, psalters, prayer-books, services for the Russian saints, calendars of saints and religious festivals (sviattsy), lives of saints, chronicles, codices of religious chants, a parchment folio with a miniature and the beginning of the Gospel According to St. Mark (from the library of Nicholas II), an illuminated “Book of the Seventh Heaven and the Creation of Adam and Eve” (Kniga o sed'mi nebesakh, o sotvorenii Adama i Evy) with inscriptions by F.I. Buslaev, a richly decorated Torzhestvennik (solemn orations apropos important events) with Pomor'e ornamentation, a redaction of the “Velikoe Zertsalo,” tracts on popular medicine (lechebniki) and medicinal herbs (travniki), an illuminated list of noble ranks and titles—“Tituliarnik”—(ca. 1670s), and codicesof imperial decrees.
        There are also Russian secular manuscripts (18th–20th cc.), including albums and diaries, travel notes, and descriptions of palaces, galleries, towns and gubernias in Russia. Among the more prominent manuscripts are “The Core of Russian History” (“Iadro rossiiskoi istorii”) by A.I. Mankiev; verses by M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarokov, and N.Leont'ev; a satire on the Masons; sixteen folios of commentary in the hand of Catherine II on a French manuscript on Russian history “Introduction a l’histoire générale de la Russie” by Gabriel Senac de Meilhan; a manuscript decorated with watercolors of “The Russian Apothegm” (Rossiiskii Apofegmat), or “Notes from the Instructions (Nakaz) for the Commission for the New Code of Laws (Novoe ulozhenie)” of 1778; a memorandum dated 1781 on changes to be made in the uniform of the Guards of the Preobrazhenskii Regiment with illustrations done in gouache and signed by G.A. Potemkin; a muster roll of the same regiment done in watercolors with autographs of A.V. Suvorov; muster rolls for the Semenov Regiment and units of other guards from the period of Catherine II; and a notebook of V.A. Zhukovskii. Of considerable interest are the numerous volumes of the “Genealogical Notes” (“Genealogicheskie zametki”) of Prince A.B. Lobanov-Rostovskii, which amount to a collection of unique historical data on Russian family trees. And no less interesting is the “Systematic Catalogue of His Imperial Majesty’s Library,” which belonged to Emperor Nicholas II.
        There is a small collection of charters, diplomas, and letters patent, many of them richly ornamented on parchment, including a few bearing the signatures of General Burkhard Münnich (Minikh), Catherine II, and Nicholas I.
        The collection of Western European manuscripts (11th–19th cc.), which contains predominantly lay writings in Latin, French, German, and Italian, is currently being reprocessed. Among them is one of the oldest and finest copies (11th c.) of Cicero’s dialogue “On Friendship” (De Amicitia). There is also a catalogue of gems by A. Miliotti and an “Inventory of the Collection of Gems,” which became part of Catherine the Great’s collection, illustrated with drawings and written by the director of the Dresden Academy of Arts, Giovanni Battista Casanova.


Working conditions:
Only materials that have been processed and described are available for researchers in the reading room.

Reference facilities:
The four fonds of manuscripts are currently in various stages of arrangement and description.

Copy facilities:
Xerox copies can be prepared.


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted