Internet and culture: Unique books from the Library of Esterhazy to post in the Web

The most valuable books from the library of Esterházy, which in spring 2013 will return to Austria, are digitized at the Rudomino Library of Foreign Literature and will be posted in the Internet, said its director Ekaterina Genieva.

The Esterhazy collection is very valuable - there are unique books that were collected by the rich family of patrons from the XV century. Among them are written in almost all European languages, works on philosophy, theology, art, mathematics, theology and alchemy. In particular, there are 11 in the collection of incunabula - books printed in Europe from the beginning of printing to the beginning of the XVI century. There are only 500 000 of incunabula.

According to Ekaterina Genieva, currently, 977 copies of the Esterhazy collection, brought after the World War II to the Soviet Union, are in the Rudomino library. 23 books are kept at the Historical Library.

“There is the decision of the government of Russia, which was adopted in 2011, that this library is transmitted to Austria. Of preliminary agreements, I know that sending is planned for March or April this year”, - said E. Genieva.

In 2011, the government of Russia has allocated 13 million rubles for the digitization of 309 most valuable books from the library of Esterhazy, in order to then digitized, full-text versions of these books have been available to scholars and specialists.

“In March, the texts will be posted in the Internet and will be available to everyone in our electronic library”, - said E. Genieva.