Book history: “Armenian Literary Culture. To the 500th Anniversary of the First Armenian Printed Book” Exhibition in St. Petersburg

April 10, 2012 in the New Building of the National Library of Russia (St. Petersburg), within the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the first Armenian printed book, took place the grand opening of "Armenian Literary Culture. To the 500th Anniversary of the First Armenian Printed Book" illustrative exhibition.

The exhibition features books of the 17th – 21st centuries in Armenian language from the funds of the national literatures of the NLR. Armenian collections of the library include about 75,000 items, second only to the number of Russian-language collections.

For the first time at display are such rare editions as "The Garden of Prayer" (Venice, 1685), "Explanation to the Psalms of David by Patriarch of Constantinople, Gennady" (Venice, 1687), "Christian Doctrine" (Amsterdam, 1667) and other.

The exhibition is complemented by the unique maps of 1695, and copies of engravings from the Department of Prints, NLR.

The exhibition at the National Library also features paintings by Armenian artists living in St. Petersburg (V. Apinyan, G. Manoukyan, A. Gasparyan, O. Gasparyan, M. Madonyan).

The exhibition is supported by the Armenian Apostolic Church, the General Consulate of the Republic of Armenia in Saint Petersburg, the Armenian National-Cultural Autonomy in St. Petersburg and the National Library of Russia.