The private library of S. P. Tomashevsky: historical and bibliological characteristics of the book collection (based on the holdings of the V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine)

Abstract

The object of the paper is the personal library of S. P. Tomashevsky, a famous
Ukrainian dermatologist, venereologist, doctor of medicine, professor and honorary member of societies of dermatology and syphilology of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Paris and Vienna. Brief historiography pointed out the major works of researchers devoted to the study of personal book collections that are deposited in the fonds of the Department of Librarian Gatherings and Historical Collections of V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (VNLU). Biographical information makes it possible to trace in detail the origin of interest of S. P. Tomashevsky to scientifi c investigations. Analytical study of the book fonds of his personal library allows us to conclude that it almost fully refl ected the professional interests of the owner and was the basis of his scientifi c activity. The scientifi c interest of S. P. Tomashevsky was mainly aimed at medical topics, especially pathological anatomy of syphilis. That is why in his personal library there were mainly foreign books and journals, monographs, proceedings of various conferences on medicine. After the death of S. P. Tomashevsky, his library was presented to the medical faculty of the St. Volodymyr University. In the time of Soviet Union, the integrity of the library was broken due to transfer of most of the books on medicine to reserve depositories or to artifi cially created VNLU fonds «Periodical publications before 1917». In the last decade, the personal library of S. P. Tomashevsky has actualy been reconstructed.