Inventories of monastic libraries in Belarussian archive and library collections in Mińsk governorate

Abstract

Dispersed monastic book collections of the 1st Republic of Poland period can be found mostly in Russian institutions, but also (to a lesser degree) in Belarus and Ukraine. Until the collapse of state in 1795 approximately 750 monastic institutions were active at the East border of Poland, and at the territory of modern Belarus, until their complete liquidation in the 19^th century, almost 240 monasteries and more than 20 convents. The author presents library inventories and catalogue of a several dozens of monastic libraries from Mińsk governorate and Vilnius, currently stored in library, museum and archive collections in Mińsk, Grodno, Połock and Witebsk.