Western European editions in the manor library of the 18th-century Ural industrialist Alexei Turchaninov

Abstract

Personal libraries occupy a special place in the structure of the cultural heritage of the past. The study of one of them - currently the largest noble library of the Urals of the 18th century - should be recognized as a serious research objective. The study became possible thanks to the discovery of a rare source - the Property Inventory, compiled in 1789 after the death of the Ural industrialist Alexei Turchaninov. A huge section of the Inventory is reserved for the library, almost a quarter of which (about a thousand volumes) is occupied by Western European publications, and the article aims to analyze the latter. The difficulty, and often impossibility, of identifying foreign books according to the Inventory is due to the fact that they are described not in the original language, but in Russian, with no imprint, briefly, with inaccurate reproduction of authors’ names and surnames. Therefore, it was possible to more or less reliably identify only a part of the books, while all of them were distributed according to linguistic characteristics and branches of knowledge. In total, 16 thematic sections are specified, each presented separately and in a summarizing table. The European publications on astronomy, physics and mechanics, mathematics, chemistry and mineralogy, natural science and medicine, which are not so typical for the noble library, are consistently considered, especially since among the books on this topic there was a lot of scientific and special literature. The maximum number of titles among foreign books was made up of books on chemistry and mineralogy, which speaks of the industrial interests of the library owner and his priorities in choosing foreign publications. The variety of literature on metallurgy, construction, mining, and industrial architecture is quite expected as part of the book collection of the Ural manufacturer. The humanitarian part of the library is rich in books on philosophy, politics and law; a historical section stands out: it ranks third in the number of titles and volumes. Modest in comparison with others, the section of literature of religious content still testifies to Turchaninov’s spiritual quest, his interest in the origin of Christianity and the history of religion. In general, the analysis of foreign books by the degree of reflection of their titles and by the number of volumes in thematic sections showed that books of two sections - on art and pedagogy - dominate in the library, which indicates a serious influence of the family and the owner’s enthusiasm for collecting (paintings, etc.) on completing his book collection. A general conclusion is made that, in terms of the composition of its foreign part, Turchaninov’s library is completely universal, that is, characteristic of the era, but at the same time not typical of the noble book collections of that time; it shows a noticeable trend towards natural science and industrial literature. During the period defined by the term “Gallomania” and the predominance of French literature in the noble libraries, 85.7% of foreign books in Turchaninov’s library were in German, the language of science and scientific knowledge of the time.