150 Years of the New Hermitage
Book Museum

The exhibition opened on 17 December, 2002, in the Rotunda (Room No. 156) and the Arab Hall (Room No. 155) of the Winter Palace marks two significant dates in the Museum's history. 2002 was the 150th anniversary of the New Hermitage and 240th anniversary of the Research Library of the State Hermitage Museum. The exhibition shows the continuing traditions of book art, new designs and ideas and their realization in the modern book.

In the summer of 1762 Catherine II signed a decree establishing the position of librarian of her book collection. This event marked the beginning of the Hermitage library containing historical collections of books on art, history, archeology and numismatics.

Ninety years late, in 1852 at the New Hermitage built by Leo von Klenze was opened the Imperial Museum. Six rooms in the ground floor housed book collections of Russian Emperors Catherine II, Alexander I and Nicholas I and the Hermitage library of foreign books. European illuminated manuscripts transferred to the Hermitage by order of Nicholas I from the Imperial Public Library became an invaluable addition to the new Book Museum.

In 1861 some of the Book Museum's exhibits, manuscripts and Voltaire's library, were transferred to the Imperial Public Library. However, the core of the book collection stayed at the Hermitage, gradually acquiring the status of the Museum's library. Over 240 years of its existence, the Hermitage Library collected, studied and exhibited book rarities.

Slaviya Publishers put out a full-color illustrated catalogue of the exhibition Book Museum in 168 pages. The show is prepared by the Research Library, assisted by the Departments of Russian Culture, the East and Scientific Restoration and Conservation of the State Hermitage Museum.

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Eugenia Makarova, Head of the Research Library and Vladimir Matveev, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Development at the opening of the exhibition

Vladimir Matveev, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Development at the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition

The catalog