European Old Printed Books of 16 Century

in the Librarian Stock Collection

of the Nizhyn Gogol State University

The Library of the Nizhyn Gogol State University is one of the oldest existing scientific and educational book collections in the Left-Bank Ukraine. The book collections of the Nizhyn Higher Education School was induced by the foundation of the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences by the Knyaz O. Bezborodko in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. It was a closed boarding of university type, which was intended to prepare educated officers for the Russian Empire. As is known, the Decree for creating the Gymnasium was issued on July 29, 1805, and the first students thereof were admitted on September  4, 1820. On the opening day of the Gymnasium, its Honorary Trustee, a descendant of the founding family, the Count Oleksandr Kushelev-Bezborodko passed 2,500 volumes of his family book collection to the education library. The fund of future University Library was so created.

In 1875, the Nizhyn Lyceum was reformed into the Historical and Philological Institute of the Knyaz Bezborodko. Due to the enthusiasm of its first Director the Professor Nikolay Lavrovskiy, the library of the institution was significantly enlarged. The Trustee Fund provided the money for the purchase of library collections of the former Director of the St. Petersburg Institute of History and Philology Josef Friedrich Steinmann, the Professor of the Moscow University Stepan Sheviryov, the Professor of Breslav, Bonn, Leipzig and Berlin Universities Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl. Later on, the Library of the Institute received a valuable collection of old Polish Doublet Fund of the Warsaw University and the collections of rare books of philosophical and theological and historical nature from the book collection of the Nizhyn Hellenic College. Furthermore, the books the library were replenished by donations and gifts of the professors and students of the institution and other private persons.

This catalog offered to our readers is a continuous series of publications aimed at scientifically development of the stock library collections. It contains a detailed description of an extremely interesting collection, from a scientific and historical point of view, of the European Old Printed books of the 16 Century stored in the Library Nizhyn University named after Mykola Gogol. This collection comprises more than 187 volumes (232 titles). The list of authors of books confirms to a full extent the historical-philological nature of the Library Collection. It is widely represented by the classical works of antique classics: Aristotle, Aristophanes, Virgil, Diogenes, Euclid, Herodotus, Hesiod, Homer, Titus Libyan, Julius Caesar, Lucretius, Plato, Plutarch, Sophocles, Tacitus, Thucydides and others. The times of Renaissance texts are presented by Torquato Tasso, Lorenzo Valla, Francesco Petrarca, Paolo Manuzio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Jean Bodin. The scientific achievements of the Middle Ages are represented by the publications of the mathematician Girolamo Cardano, the physician Claudius Galenus, and the respected scholars such as Isaac Cassaubon, Conrad Gesner, Johann Glandorp, Heinrich Glareanus, Justus Lipsius, Johann Pistorius and Joseph Scaliger.

Of course, the Library Collection of the Nizhyn Gogol State University  is a unique historical and cultural phenomenon, an invaluable source of research for bibliologists and culture experts and a bright evidence of nourishing achievements and traditions and a rewarding work of librarians who have managed to save it for future generations.