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“A Beautiful,Tremendous Russian Book, and Otherthingstoo” Canadian-American Slavic Studies 51 (2017) 376–397 brill.com/css “A Beautiful, Tremendous Russian Book, and Other Things Too” An Overview of Rare Russian Books from the Diaghilev-Lifar Collection in the British Library Ekaterina Rogatchevskaia Lead East European Curator at the British Library [email protected] Abstract The British Library holds one of 65 existing copies of the first dated book printed in Muscovy by Ivan Fedorov and Petr Mstislavets, the Apostol (Acts and Epistles) (1564) and one of two known copies of Ivan Fedorov’s Primer (L’viv, 1574), which is considered by many to be the first Cyrillic book printed in Ukraine. The recent history of these books is linked to the name of the legendary Russian art critic and impresario Serge Diaghilev (1872–1929). Both titles belonged to his private book collection. A story of Diaghilev’s collection became part of the history of the British Library when in 1975 it acquired, among other books and manuscripts, his copy of the famous 1564 Apostol. Diaghilev’s copy of the 1574 Primer resurfaced at Harvard University Library, but its detailed descriptions and facsimile editions helped the British Library curator Christine Thomas, then in charge of the Russian collections, to identify a second copy, which is now held at the British Library. This article tells the story of how over 70 titles from Diaghilev’s collection of rare Russian books and manuscripts were acquired by the British Library, examines possible reasons for Diaghilev’s passion for books, and highlights other themes relevant for the history of private and public book collecting. Keywords Ivan Fedorov – Apostol – Primer – Serge Diaghilev – Serge Lifar – Ballets Russes – book collecting – The British Library – antiquarian auctions – book culture – history of the book © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/22102396-05102009 Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:14:06AM via free access “a beautiful, tremendous russian book, and other things too” 377 In his encyclopedia on Ivan Fedorov and his time, the leading Russian specialist on the history of the book E.L. Nemirovskii described in detail all the known copies of the editions printed by Ivan Fedorov and his successors.1 The British Library holds one of 65 existing copies of the first dated book printed in Muscovy by Ivan Fedorov and Petr Mstislavets, the Apostol (Acts and Epistles) (1564), and one of the two known copies of Ivan Fedorov’s Primer (L’viv, 1574), which is considered by many experts to be the first Cyrillic book printed in Ukraine.2 The recent history of these books is linked to the name of the legendary Russian art critic and impresario Serge Diaghilev (1872–1929). Both titles belonged to his private book collection.The story of Diaghilev’s collection became part of the history of the British Library when in 1975 it acquired, among other books and manuscripts, his copy of the famous Apostol (1564) (fig. 1). Diaghilev’s copy of the Primer (1574) resurfaced at Harvard University Library, and its detailed description and facsimile editions helped the British Library curator, Christine Thomas, then in charge of the Russian collections, to identify a second copy, which is now held at the British Library (fig. 2). This article tells the story of how over 70 titles from Diaghilev’s collection of rare Russian books and manuscripts were acquired by the British Library, examines possible reasons for Diaghilev’s passion for books, and highlights other themes relevant for the history of private and public book collecting. Provenance research is a routine and essential part of the work collection development librarians and other information professionals do on a daily basis. This kind of work also often forms the core of the research interests of library historians: “In recent years there has been a steady growth of interest in book ownership and reception history, and researchers working in the British Library are now less likely to take collections for granted, and more likely to ask copy- specific questions about the history of the books they hold in their hands.”3 However, in one of the recent surveys of art libraries in the United States, special provenance did not score highly on the list of criteria used in libraries to assign “rare” or “special” status to books in their collections.4 That fact suggests 1 E.L. Nemirovskii, Ivan Fedorov i ego epokha: Entsiklopediia (Moscow: Entsiklopediia, 2007), 5. 2 For the most detailed description and comprehensive literature review, see E.L. Nemirovskii, Slavianskie izdaniia kirillovskogo (tserkovnoslavianskogo) shrifta 1491–2000: Inventar’ sokhra- nivshikhsia ekzempliarov i ukazatel’ literatury, t. 2, kn. 1: 1551–1592 (Moscow: Znak, 2011), 184– 198, 292–298; and Nemirovskii, Ivan Fedorov i ego epokha, 56–66, 89–146. 3 Arnold Hunt, “Researching Provenance in the British Library Invoices,” in Giles Mandelbrote and Barry Taylor, eds., Libraries within the Library: The Origins of the British Library’s Printed Collections (London: The British Library, 2009), 363. 4 Karan Rinaldo, “Evaluating the Future: Special Collections in Art Libraries,” Art Documenta- tion: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 26, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 38–47. Canadian-American Slavic Studies 51 (2017) 376–397 Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:14:06AM via free access 378 rogatchevskaia figure 1 Apostol (Moscow: Ivan Fedorov and Petr Mstislavets, 1564), fols. 2v (Apostle Luke), 3 british library, c.104.k.11 that the practical and academic aims of provenance research are very different from each other. The cultural status of the former owner of a book, which subsequently came to be part of the collection of a public institution, could be ignored or emphasised depending on other factors. Such aspects of collection development as collection integrity versus random acquisition, usability of the collection versus its uniqueness,5 strengths and weaknesses of the entire library holdings as the main drivers for its growth versus unintentional expansion in 5 The observation made in relation to the current antiquarian music market is relevant to the situation in the antiquarian book market in general: “A great deal of what was offered on the antiquarian market until, say, ten or fifteen years ago was sold to institutional collections. There was a good demand and a reasonably good supply, and prices were, in retrospect, relatively modest …. All of this [technological advances and budgetary constraints] has resulted, in some cases, in a significant reduction of the number of institutions acquiring antiquarian materials; however, the market continues to thrive.” John Lubrano and Jude Lubrano, “The Antiquarian Music Market,” Notes 56, no. 3 (March 2000): 641–647, quote at 642. Canadian-American Slavic Studies 51 (2017) 376–397 Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:14:06AM via free access “a beautiful, tremendous russian book, and other things too” 379 figure 2 The colophon of Ivan Fedorov’s Primer of 1574 with the coat of arms of the city of L’viv and Ivan Fedorov’s printer’s mark, fol. 40 british library, c.104.dd.11 (1) Canadian-American Slavic Studies 51 (2017) 376–397 Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 05:14:06AM via free access 380 rogatchevskaia the area where development was not expected, as well as special circumstances that may accompany acquisitions – all this plays an important role in convert- ing practical information into “added value.” On the book market, the price tag of a personal collection on sale would be defined by a combination of factors, such as the scarcity of individual items, the uniqueness of the collection on the whole, evolving fashions in the market, the reputation of the seller or dealer, information disclosure, and the interval between the lifetime of the owner and the point in time when his or her collection is disposed of. As David Pearson puts it, “the importance of ‘association’ in adding value to a book has been recognised and exploited by booksellers, and has featured increasingly in their catalogues since the beginning of the nineteenth century. But there is a dif- ference between venerating a book as a precious relic, and approaching the evidence of previous ownership with a view to asking serious questions about what it can teach us.”6 It is always interesting to observe the dynamics between the market price and the relative value added by scholarship. For example, in 1873 the British Museum Library purchased the collection that had been assembled by S.A. Sobolevskii, who was well known in Russia as a bibliophile, collector, bib- liographer, author and friend of Aleksandr Pushkin and Prosper Mérimée. The average price per book offered by the British Museum was seven shillings, as “Sobolevskii’s library was not notable for sumptuous bindings, fine printing or rare curiosities.”7 However, the contemporary survey of this collection and its reconstruction within the British Library holdings “throws light on how the Museum went about selecting and acquiring foreign books in the late nine- teenth century” and “gives insight into the interconnections of book collec- tors and intellectuals in Russia and Western Europe.”8 In the British Museum Library the Sobolevskii collection has been shelved according to subject areas and rarity. Thus, its integrity has been lost. Appreciation of the Sobolevskii library as a unit and a research object in its own right, as well as interest in its reconstruction, developed more than a century after it had been technically acquired. The focus of this article is the 1975 auction in Monaco, where the British Library acquired over 70 titles from the collection of rare Russian books and manuscripts owned by Serge Diaghilev. Although this private library com- 6 David Pearson, ProvenanceResearchinBookHistory:AHandbook (London:The British Library & Oak Knoll Press, 1998), 2.
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