Library gold of Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve

Have you ever wondered how big the hand should be to hold four books at the same time? Could you put, for example, the verses of Marina Tsvetaeva, Nikolay Rubtsov, “Eugene Onegin” of Alexander Pushkin and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” of Oscar Wilde on your palm so that there was enough place for all of them?  

You can really do it in the scientific library of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve! “We have very tiny editions of these books. Their height is less than 6 cm! Students of the Vologda Regional College of Culture and Tourism have visited us lately. They were interested in the works of writers made in an unusual style and kept hold on them for a long time”, said Nelya Alexandrovna Shumilova, librarian of the scientific library in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve.

These tiny books make you melt and admire indeed. How could both illustrations and verse be placed on four paper pages (it is less than a match-box)?! The poetess wrote once, “The turn of my poems, like good vines, would come…” It appears that it has come and in a quite unexpected place – within the monastery walls!

“These editions are rather new”, said the librarian of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve putting the books near a long ruler. “But it is not the only thing that can amaze our readers”.

Many people wonder if there is gold in the museum and where it is located. It is located here – in the scientific library, in the place with a huge layer of knowledge about history and culture of the district, the region, the country and the world. “At present the holding of the scientific library makes up about 20000 exemplars. Editions about decorative and applied art and Old Russian art, archeology, religion and local history materials hold a specific place in it. There are about 700 exemplars of reference pre-revolutionary literature, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries and reference books of various subjects. The following editions are especially interesting: “People’s Encyclopedia of Scientific and Applied Knowledge in 14 Volumes”, “Great Encyclopedia. Dictionary of Publicly Available Information in All Fields of Knowledge”, “Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary” in 82 volumes, “Real Encyclopedia of Applied Medicine. Medical-Surgical Dictionary for Practitioners Written by Professor Еulenburg” and “Russian-German Dictionary of I.Y. Pavlovsky” published in 1902 that contains 1530 pages. The reference pre-revolutionary materials are carefully kept in the holding of the scientific library of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve: they are registered in the card-index of rare editions and in the electronic catalogue. Most of the reference materials are used by the museum employees, students of educational institutions, pupils of the town and district”, reported N.A. Shumilova.

You have a chance to open the books that people living in an absolutely different epoch were holding in their hands and to touch the history here, in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve. You can come to the scientific library only with permission of the museum administration or you are to be a tourist or a museum employee. But if you get to this place, you will understand that you have come here not in vain.  

By the way, while we are talking about the library gold, it can be found here not only in the rare books that are constantly in use, for instance, the local history edition of Nikolsky “Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery and Its Structure” (1897), “The Trip to Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Vacation Days in 1847” written by Professor S.P. Shevyryov and “The Winter Trip to Belozersk Region” of Duke Pavel Sheremetev. The library gold includes the gold edge of the book “Tsar’s Hunt in Russia in the 17th Century under Mikhail Fyodorovich and Alexey Mikhailovich” where every page is decorated with parchment paper with ornaments and is topped with illustrations of famous artists (V.N. Vasnetsov, K.V. Lebedev, I.E. Repin, V.I. Surikov…); the gold stamping of the books of the Granat brothers and Brockhaus and Efron; the leather binding and the linen cover of the reprinted edition (2010) of the book written in 1896 by philologist, biblical scholar, archaeograph and historian Pavel Savvaitov “Description of Ancient Russian Household Articles, Pieces of Clothing, Arms, Armour and Trappings in Alphabetical Order” and a lot of other rare editions the unique copies of which are kept in our library.

The holding of the scientific library of the Kirillo-Belozersky Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve is so big, varied and rare that it can comply with readers’ requests connected with research and work activity in the sphere of culture and museum affairs. This special library meets professional requirements of research, preservation, restoration, exhibition, educational activities of museum specialists and other users who want to apply the wealth of knowledge gained within the years of library work.