Manuscripts
Manuscripts

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.
Rare Books
Rare Books

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.
Maps
Maps

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.
Graphic Materials
Graphic Materials

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
Photographs
Photographs

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.
- Leningrad during World War II
- ALL EXHIBITIONS
Books
Books

The exhibitions presents material from several collections:
Russian Books
Foreign Books
Russian Periodicals
Literature of Asian and African Countries
Literature of the Peoples the Russian Federation
"Plekhanov House".
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Home page > Rare Books > French Royal Bindings > Publications of the Royal Printing Works

French Royal Bindings of the 17th-19th Centuries

Publications of the Royal Printing Works with Super ex librises of French Kings

The Royal Printing Works (L’Imprimerie royale) was founded in Paris in 1640, through the efforts of Louis XIII's first Minister Cardinal Richelieu. The intendant of finances François Sublet de Noyers was appointed manager of the printing house, and the king's official publisher and printer Sebastian Cramoisy was the director. They both enjoyed the cardinal's consistent patronage. The enterprise published royal edicts, ordinances, regulations and decrees of the Royal Council, as well as historical, scientific and artistic works.

The status of the Royal Printing Works made it possible to use first-class paper for printing, to purchase rare fonts, to hire the best typographers and artists. Its publications, as a rule, were of a large format, beautifully illustrated and decorated, and perfectly bound. Part of the books was covered with expensive leather bindings and adorned with royal super ex librises, such copies were intended for the King's Library and for official gifts. The presence of such super ex librises should not be misleading about the owners of the books: they have only symbolic significance. We can determine that book belonged to one or another French king by the date of publication. The year of publication of a book should fall into the period of the reign of the monarch.