The Firkovich collection includes 12 out of the 18 now known oldest manuscripts. It is one of the word's largest and most precious private collections. The largest acquisition made during the history of the Library is the collection of the Karaim traveler, merchant and archeologist Avraam Firkovich which numbers some 19 000 items. 4 cent.į.1299 (Literary Landmarks on Stones), no.
Written in the Hebrew language, in the Samaritan alphabet. Thanks to Alexander I, Nicholas I and especially Alexander II, the Library received more than 20 thousand eastern manuscripts - war trophies and diplomatic gifts, collections whose costs exceeded the Library’s budget.įurther growth of this collection became possible due to collecting activities of the mining engineer P. Frolov, of diplomats (I. Simonitch, D. Dolgoruky, A. Zhaba) and Russian and foreign scholars (J.-J. Marcele, C. Tischendorff, V. Smirnov, I. Minaev, N. Khanykov), of missionaries (Archimandrite Peter (Kamensky), Archbishop Porphyrius (Uspensky), Archimandrite Antonyn (Kapustin), Z. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Orientalia of Dubrovsky aroused an interest in collecting Eastern manuscripts among Russian society and, most importantly, from Russian emperors. Then the Imperial Public Library was officially inaugurated in 1812, its Oriental manuscript holdings consisted of 183 items, 103 of them being from P.P. The thematic range is extremely wide: among them are not only religious and philosophical writings, but also books of fiction, historical works, dictionaries, treatises on linguistics, exact and natural sciences - mathematics, geography, astronomy, medicine. Many codices, both parchment and paper, demonstrate the highest artistic level they strike with calligraphic handwritings and exquisite miniatures, ornamental decoration and fine bindings.Ī large number of manuscripts are rare in content and unique, previously unknown works. With all the variety of forms, the basic is the book-codex, which appeared at the beginning of the new era and became widespread first in the Christian environment, and then adopted by people of the two other monotheistic faiths - Jews and Muslims. The Oriental holdings include books on palm leaves, birch and palm bark, leather, parchment and paper, texts carved on stones and wooden boards, embroidered on silk and painted on canvas, Chinese and Japanese woodblock prints and drawings. The four Egyptian papyrus from the Theban necropolis - fragments of the Book of the Dead, dated back to the 10th century BC, are the most ancient monuments of writing. The chronological span of the collections is from the 10th century before Christ (papyri from Ancient Egypt) to the present day: its geographic span is from Japan and Indonesia to Spain, from St. At the moment the National Library of Russia preserves some 28 000 Oriental manuscripts: codices, fragments, scrolls, documents (charters, letters, etc.), xylographs, and drawings fully illustrating the history of the evolution of writing and of the art of making books in the East.
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