The editions of the Officina Platiniana from Antwerp in the Warsaw collections of the National Library of Russia

Abstract

The printings from the Antwerp company established by Christophe Plantin in 1555, so-called Plantiniana, belong to the crowning achievements of book printing of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. A part of Plantiniana being stored in the National Library of Russia (NLR) comes from the Załuski Library in Warsaw and the library of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Sciences, collections of which were incorporated in different times into the Imperial Public Library in Petersburg. This article concerns the most valuable works of typographic art of the Officina Plantiniana, which were moved to the NLR from Warsaw. Their presentation is accompanied by illustrations. The text is the result of some introductory works on separation of the Plantiniana (500 volumes have been identified until the article is written) into a specific collection within the NLR. As the author emphasizes, it is difficult because the large collection of printings from the 16^th century is dispersed among different sections of the library in Petersburg (approximately 14000 volumes in the Rare Book Department only), the least explored, described and catalogued. Complete description of this collection and separation of the Plantiniana would enable, as the author states, increase of a number of identified Antwerp printings, and development of research workshop of the book scientists and historians of the renaissance.