For the collection

Russian State Art Library

15th International Scientific Readings “The Theatre Book between the Past and Future”

Library: Bridges of Art

To the 100th Anniversary of the Russian State Art Library

The collection includes materials from the 15th International Scientific Readings “The Theatre Book between the Past and Future,” held in November 2022, and timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Russian State Art Library (RSAL). It includes publications by art historians, museum and library staff, theatre scholars, and researchers of books devoted to the interaction and intersection of the creative and constructive work of theatre workers and the organisational, expert, and cultural heritage-preserving activities of museums, archives, and libraries.

The authors’ articles and reports pertain to the organisation of work in a library: support and bibliographic information for the reader, and the methodology and approaches to documenting art. In the collection, particular attention is paid to the history of the development and formation of a unique, special library—the Russian State Art Library, the acquisition and review of its collections, and principles and approaches to work in modern conditions.

A number of articles relate to the history of the domestic regional theatres of Vologda, Ryazan, Astrakhan, and Vyatka, reconstructed from archival materials and the collections of public and theatrical figures.

Introduced into scientific circulation for the first time are materials from the archive of theatre critic Nikolay D. Volkov, which contains the beginning of a book about Sergei Eisenstein from the words of the director; a review of the recently discovered handwritten catalogue of the ex-libris collection of the famous collector and bibliophile of the early 20th century Dmitry V. Ulyaninsky is published; the sources for the production of Michel (Mikhail) Fokine’s ballet Egyptian Nights; and the history of some other works are considered. The articles in the collection are supplemented by previously unpublished illustrations.

The publication is addressed to both specialists—cultural experts, theatre scholars, bibliologists, museum staff—and anyone interested in the history of Russian theatre and libraries as curators and “assistants” of art.