The Urbanowski and Starzyński Family Library

Abstract

A large number of book collections, history of which is related to the history and culture of Poland, are stored in the V.I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. The article presents one of them – the library of Urbanowski and Starzyński, known Polish nobility families from Podolia (at present region of Ukraine). The collection unexplored before, history of which come back to the end of the 18^th century, is known as the Zahiniecka Library, from the place of its original collection and storage – the village of Zahińce in the Latyczów county (at present Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine). According to different sources, when the Zahiniecka Library was transferred to Kiev (1917), it amounted to 16.000-20.000 volumes. Part of this collection was relocated in Kiev to different sections of the Central Scientific Library of Ukraine (at present the V.I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine). The article consists of two parts. In the first one the author reconstructs history and content of the Urbanowski and Starzyński Library – a typical library of Polish gentry from Volyn, Podolia and Kiev region (currently Ukraine). In the other she lists exemplary prints from the 16^th-19^th centuries from this collection. The article is closed with information concerning bindings and heraldic exlibris of the Zahiniecka Library.