Manuscripts holdings is one of the world's richest collections of written landmarks of national and world culture from ancient Egyptian papyri to autographs of our contemporaries. The manuscripts held by the National Library of Russia comprise of over 1400 private archives and collections that today number more than 450 000 valuable items for all periods and countries.
The library's stock of rare books contains more than 70 000 volumes. An appreciable portion of those are incunabula (books printed before 1501): about 7 000 works. The library has no rival for its stock of early Russian printed books and Slavonic incunabula, it also holds a large amount of West European publications from the 16th and 17th century. The most remarkable among collections are Aldine editions of the 15th - 16th centuries and Elseviers produced by the celebrated 17th/century Dutch family firm. The Rare Books Department can boast Voltaire's Library, the unique monument of 18th century culture, that is one of some well surviving private libraries of that time.
The National Library's collection of printed maps and atlases is the second largest in the country, comprising more than 180,000 items printed in Russia and abroad from the sixteenth century to the present. It incudes maps, atlases, reproductions of manuscripts, globes, electronic cartographic publications.
The prints collections today number more than 1.26 million items. These include: albums, books, Ex Libris, photographs, posters, postcards, Russian and West European Prints
A unique photographic collection of the Prints Department is a true chronicle of the life of Russia since the second half of the 19th . It includes portraits from the 1850s, photographic views of cities and other places since the 1850s, photos on various subjects from the 1860s, photographic reproductions of works of art.
The exhibitions presents material from several collections: Russian Books Foreign Books Russian PeriodicalsLiterature of Asian and African Countries Literature of the Peoples the Russian Federation "Plekhanov House".
![ABC (Reader). [Ostrog, 1578-1580]. Fol. [*]<sub>1</sub>.<BR> Only two copies of the book are known to exist: the one is held in Goth, the other is kept in Copenhagen. Reproduced from the facsimile edition: 1578 ABC of Ostrog by Ivan Fedorov / Preparation of the edition and research by E.L. Nemirovsky; index of the words by A.M. Moldovan. Moscow, 1983.](images/4.jpg "ABC (Reader). [Ostrog, 1578-1580]")
![Primer. Lviv, 1574. Fol. [1]<sub>5</sub>.<BR> Two specimens are known to have survived (stored in the libraries of England and USA). Reproduced from the facsimile edition: Ivan Fedorov. Primer / Preparation of the edition and postface by G.V. Karpuk. Moscow, 1574.](images/5.jpg "Primer. Lviv, 1574")
![Primer. Lviv, 1574. Fol. [5]<sub>7</sub>v-[5]<sub>8</sub>.](images/6.jpg "Primer. Lviv, 1574")
![ABC (Reader). [Ostrog, 1578-1580]. Fol. [5]<sub>8</sub>.](images/7.jpg "ABC (Reader). [Ostrog, 1578-1580]")
![Greek and Church-Slavonic ABC (Reader). Ostrog, 1578. Fol. [1]<sub>1</sub>v-[1]<sub>2</sub>.<BR> Only one complete copy of the publication is in existence (stored in the Royal Library of Copenhagen), the other two incomplete specimens are kept in Goth and Moscow. Reproduced from the facsimile edition: 1578 ABC of Ostrog by Ivan Fedorov / Preparation of the edition and research by E.L. Nemirovsky; index of the words by A.M. Moldovan. Moscow, 1983.](images/8.jpg "Greek and Church-Slavonic ABC (Reader). Ostrog, 1578")
![Lawrence Zizany. Slavonic Grammar. Vilna (now Vilnius), 1596. Fol. [А]<sub>1</sub>.](images/23.jpg "Lawrence Zizany. Slavonic Grammar. Vilna (now Vilnius), 1596")
![Instructions to a Newly Consecrated Priest; [Sylvester Kossov]. On the Sacraments of the Church in the Commonwealth. Lviv, 1642. Title page.](images/26.jpg "Instructions to a Newly Consecrated Priest; [Sylvester Kossov]. On the Sacraments of the Church in the Commonwealth. Lviv, 1642")
![Instructions to a Newly Consecrated Priest; [Sylvester Kossov]. On the Sacraments of the Church in the Commonwealth. Lviv, 1642. Fol. Б<sub>3</sub>v-Б<sub>4</sub>.](images/27.jpg "Instructions to a Newly Consecrated Priest; [Sylvester Kossov]. On the Sacraments of the Church in the Commonwealth. Lviv, 1642")
![Instructions to a Newly Consecrated Priest; [Sylvester Kossov]. On the Sacraments of the Church in the Commonwealth. Lviv, 1642. Fol. Б<sub>4</sub>v-В<sub>1</sub>.](images/28.jpg "Instructions to a Newly Consecrated Priest; [Sylvester Kossov]. On the Sacraments of the Church in the Commonwealth. Lviv, 1642")
