Encyclopedias and lexicons of the 15-18th centuries in the collections from the Old and Rare Books Department of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine

Abstract

The article presents the old printed encyclopedic and reference editions stored in different collections of the Old and Rare Books Department of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (VNLU) – incunabula, paleotypes, foreign old books, rare editions, editions in civil and Cyrillic font. The largest number among them is foreign old printed books, but information on domestic editions is also provided. The main goal of the publication is to draw the attention of specialists to these forgotten book monuments of the past and, if possible, to return them to scientific circulation. The methodology of the research and their subsequent quite brief characteristics involved structuring the information according to the chronology of book printing, importance in the society of the time, typological classification of publications, etc. For the convenience of further research work with these sources, each description of the monument is accompanied by a shelf number, assigned by the department. The study has revealed a significant amount and historical importance of encyclopedic and reference publications of the 15th and 18th centuries in the collections of a single specialized department of the library. It is reasonable to continue studying copies of encyclopedic editions of the 19th – early 20th centuries in the collections of the Old and Rare Books Department, as well as conducting a similar study in the collections of other specialized departments of the VNLU.

Keywords

• old printed books
• ancient reference books
• encyclopedias from the past
• old and rare books department
• institute of book studies
• vernadsky national library of ukraine