Monuments of book culture: Personal Bible of Paul I presented in the Gatchina Museum-Reserve

March 12, 2014 at the Gatchina Palace (the Leningrad region) opened the exhibition "My one refuge the good and bad in one God…" dedicated to the unique exhibit - personal Bible of Paul I, published in 1778. This is the seventh of ten editions of the XVIII century of the Elizabethan Bible in Church Slavonic language.

The Bible was kept in one of the private rooms of Paul on the first floor of the Gatchina Palace – the Tower cabinet, where a part of the palace library was, as well as books that the emperor always read. Partly on the number of storage units (about two hundred editions), this book collection is diverse in content: there are books on world history, the history of France, Prussia, Russia, books on geography, military and maritime affairs, literature of Masonic content, calendars, reference books, separate publications on medicine, geography, biology, art, and technical disciplines Maltese Order. On the covers of some publications may be found super ex-libris of the Emperor: monogram of two interlaced letters "P" or a letter "P". During the Great Patriotic War, most publications were evacuated, thereby rarities of the palace library survived.

The exhibition gives an idea about the formation of religious views of Paul, personal library of the emperor in the Tower cabinet of the Gatchina Palace and the most valuable editions of this collection.