The Book Museum, an exhibition space of the TSU Research Library, was opened in 2005, based on a permanent exhibition on the history of books that ran from 1944 to 2003 at the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts.

The Department’s collections form the basis of the Book Museum. The exhibition features the finest examples of book heritage which show the uniqueness of the Research Library’s collection: manuscripts and early printed books, newspapers and journals, lifetime editions of writers and poets in Russian and other languages, works of scientists, books with an unusual history, including those with autographs.

The exhibition opens with a showcase containing unique materials from the early period of the history of Siberia and Tomsk. A 17th-century handwritten miscellany of a historical nature is opened at the page that describes Siberia at that time. Administrative documents of the 17th century are displayed as scrolls, and next to them is a manuscript by Grigoriy Novitskiy A Brief Description of the Ostyak People, written in 1715 in Tobolsk, which is considered the first monograph about indigenous population of Siberia.

The Christian Topography by Cosmas Indicopleustes is presented as an example of a Russian illuminated manuscript from the late 17th century; manuscript documents on parchment and birch bark also complement the section.

Early Western European and Slavic-Russian editions of the 15th –16th centuries are represented by Sermons on Sins by Michael de Carcano, printed in Basel in 1479, and The History of Animals by Conrad Gessner, published in 1555. A copy of the Bible published by Ivan Fyodorov in Ostrog in 1581 is also on display.

From among Western European and Russian scientific editions of the 16th – 18th centuries, visitors can see Sebastian Münster’s Rudimenta Mathematica… (1555), Meletius Smotrytsky’s Grammar… (1648), and Leonty Magnitsky’s Arithmetic… (1703). Chronologically, this section continues with G. F. Müller’s Description of the Siberian Kingdom (1750) and S. P. Krasheninnikov’s Description of the Land of Kamchatka (1756). The Age of Enlightenment is represented by works of Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as the first volume of the Encyclopedia… by d’Alembert and Diderot, published between 1751 and 1780.

 A significant part of the exhibition is devoted to books on Russian history and literature of the late 18th – early 19th century. Among them, those printed in Tobolsk at V. Korniliev’s printing house hold a special place. They are complemented by P.A. Slovtsov’s manuscript Historical Overview of Siberia (1830s). The adjacent showcase contains The List of State Criminals Sentenced by the Supreme Criminal Court to Various Executions and Punishments (1826) and books from the library of G. S. Batenkov, a Decembrist who lived in Tomsk.

The exhibition also features books from the library of the poet V. A. Zhukovsky, the pages of which bear his notes and annotations in the margins as well as a running translation between the lines. One of the showcases contains lifetime editions of works by A.S. Pushkin: individual chapters of the novel Eugene Onegin (1825-1832), a copy of the poem Ruslan and Ludmila (1828), and others. Works by N.V. Gogol and N. G. Chernyshevsky with dedicatory inscriptions to A. V. Nikitenko, Professor of Philology at Saint Petersburg University, are also on display. Next to the first edition of L.N. Tolstoy’s collection The War stories (1856) is a photo of him with a dedicatory inscription to P.A. Butkeev, a resident of Tomsk.

N.P. Kondakov’s History and Monuments of Byzantine Enamels, published by A.V. Zvenigorodsky in 1894, is presented as an example of the printing art of the late 19th century. Nearby, there are miniature books including Dante’s Divine Comedy, measuring 54×35 mm, printed in Milan in 1878. 

The cultural life of Tomsk in the late 19th century is also represented in the exhibition. Items on the display include books and documents from the collection of G.K. Tyumentsev, the director of Tomsk Real School, i

ncluding Might Breaks the Straw: Stories from the Life of Siberian Peasants by the Siberian populist writer N.I. Naumov.

The exhibit also features authentic documents from the time of the founding and opening of Imperial Tomsk University in 1888, the first higher educational institution in Siberia. There is also Distinguished Visitors’ Book opened at the page with the autograph of Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich – future Emperor Nicholas II, who visited the University on July 6, 1891.

The exhibition ends with materials from the archives of the famous traveler and Siberian public figure G.N. Potanin, Siberian educator P.I. Makushin, and writer G.M. Markov.

Original paintings and graphic works by artists of the 19th – 20th centuries, portraits of donors for construction of the University, and V. M. Florinskiy, the founder of the library and organizer of the first university in Siberia, complement Museum’s exhibition and create a visual context for its perception.

We invite you to visit our Book Museum!
Address: 634050, Tomsk, Lenin Avenue, 34a, Research Library, Historical Building, Room 8.
Opening hours: Monday – Friday from 10:00 to 16:00.
To register for an excursion to the Book Museum, contact the Excursion and Educational Center of TSU museums, phone: 52-98-34.
For questions about the Book Museum, contact Kirill A. Konev, Head of the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts, phone: 78-51-09

Price List for Additional Excursion Services of the TSU Research Library