Russia
[CALENDAR] -
Mesyatsoslov na leto ot rozhdestva khristova 1782 [Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1782].
Imper. Akad. Nauk, Skt. Peterburg, [1781]. 8vo (19.8 x 11.5 cm). Engraved title-page device and engraved tailpiece; title-page trimmed at bottom, occasional light staining. Contemporary pink paper wrappers, with floral pattern in gilt; a bit rubbed.
Fine copy in contemporary floral wrappers. The Imperial Academy of Sciences had been charged with producing these calendars from 1726 and guarded the privilege jealously. In 1780, the Senate had issued a law re-emphasing the Academy's monopoly, after Kh. F. Kleen, the owner of the Artillery and Engineering Department's press, had issued calendars for that year. Kleen was forbidden to sell his calendars and forced to surrender them to the Academy. The calendar includes a table of important religious dates, tables of relative distances within the Russian Empire and a section on noteworthy events for the year 1780-81, compiled by Login Ivanovich Bakmeister, the first Russian bibliographer. The first section contains blank tables for the calendar's owner to complete with his own observations; two of these, for January and February, have been removed, while others have been completed and left in place. Edited by S. Ya. Rumovskiy.
Price: £ 2250
US Dollar Price: $ 3270
Stock Number: 77539