Polonica in the European Book Collection of the Syberian Academic Library

Abstract

Old prints of Polish provenance belong to the more interesting materials of the European Book Collection (15th – 20th c.) of the Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts of the State Public Scientifi c Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk (Госуда́рственная публи́чная нау́чно-техни́ческая библиоте́ка Сиби́рского отделе́ния Росси́йской акаде́мии нау́к). These books do not form a separate organisational unit. They remain dispersed among the two basic collections of the Division: the Tobolsk Seminary and the European Scientifi c Publications. All these books, without exception, are very interesting, from the point of view of their contents, authorship, publication details, and provenance.

The article presents a summary overview of all the foreign collections of the Division, because they form the context in which the Polish books, dated from the 16th to the 19th c., function in Siberia for over 50 years now. This is followed by a description of the books published in Polish, or in Poland, and some rare copies of books formerly kept in Polish libraries, which later on found their way to Siberia. Studies into the history of book collections, reconstructed on the basis of various provenance marks on the copies (bookplates, stamps, stickers, characteristic bookbindings, etc.), revealed the existence of provenance marks, which appear many times, and so allowed for distinguishing various subcollections of Polish books in the holdings of the Division.