The Curiosity Chamber of Books at the State Hermitage Museum
April 1, 2009 – June 7, 2009
The Winter Palace rotunda

The State Hermitage Museum Scientific Library for the first time presents an exhibition of its curiosities. The exposition of 128 objects opens with the giant and midget books. The “thickest” book in the Hermitage Library is the Alphabetic Index of the Government Laws and Orders Corpus of 1913. The thickness of the inner book is 18.5 centimeters. The “longest” of the Hermitage Library books is a scroll with a reproduction of the famous medieval Norman carpet from Bajo devoted to the Norman conquest of the Southern England. Its length is 6.16 meters. Among the miniature books sized from 2.5 to 5.8 centimeters are liturgical Orthodox and Muslim books from 17-20th centuries as well as the midget books of non-religious content. Various book covers and the books of unusual forms and constructions make the biggest section of the exhibition. Among the materials used for the book covers that attract attention are beads, varnish, water color painting on paper, sheet music manuscripts, embroidery, fabric, mother-of-pearl, bone, birch bark and fur. A prayer book made in the 18th century by a French calligraphist is exhibited for the first time. One of the sections of the exhibition presents the printings with samples of fabrics, lace, mesh, woolens for the army coats, wood and carpet yarn. The Oriental section consists of various scrolls, Koran and Torah editions, accordion-folded books which replaced the scrolls. The Artist Book section presents books designed and created by the artists from the very beginning up to the end. For this section the books of unusual forms created with the use of the unusual materials by the acknowledged masters were chosen. The unique collection is completed with rarely exhibited small plastic art pieces and applied art pieces of the 15-17th centuries created in a form of a book: clock, feather holder, flask, lockets. Household items created in a form of a book are also of infinite variety: matchbox holder and keychain, paper-weight and wallet, letter box and inkpots