The Winter Palace libraries: books, librarians, imperial families (1762-1917 )

The article covers the history of forming the library collections of the Winter Palace. The author studies the architectural and interior design of Imperial libraries, the history of forming and the fate of the book collections as well as the history of the Royal families living inside the “interior” of their “own” libraries. The article uses the previously unknown documents from the Russian State Historical Archive and the Manuscripts Department of the Russian National Library. The author specifies the “whereabouts” of the libraries in the State Hermitage and the layout of the Imperial and Grand Dukes’ libraries. The author makes the first ever reference to the figures of financing from “personal sums” the purchase of books for “personal” libraries, enumerates periodical editions subscribed by the members of the royal family and relates the fate of Nicholas I’s “secret” library. The article describes the creation of interiors and book collection of Nicholas II’s Gothic library, the only imperial library in the Winter Palace left intact until now. Another “first” is the mentioning of the facts of using its archival collection by the imperial family. It is concluded that the Gothic library of Nicholas II is one of the rare material “witness” of “the imperial library’s life” in the context of the Romanovs’ personal space.