The Study of Provenance in Historical-Bibliological Research at the Turn of the 20th — 21st Centuries: Using the Example of Ukraine

The article is devoted to the research of provenance in Ukraine. The aim of the work is to analyse and summarize information concerning the study of provenance in book science; to determine the features of interpretation of the term “provenance” in modern bibliology and librarianship studies; to reveal the main historical factors that influenced the formation of the modern content and interpretation of the term “provenance”, as well as to clarify the place and significance of provenance study in determining the ownership of a book, in revealing the features of the functioning of books in society, in recreating the history of their existence and in the reconstruction of library collections. The author used the method of terminological analysis, as well as comparative historical method, descriptive-narrative, bibliographic and other methods of research.

The article presents the main trends in interpretation of the term “provenance” in modern Ukrainian, Russian, American and Polish historiography. The author discloses the main factors of formation of the meaning of the term “provenance” in the process of studying the ownership and existence of a book; presents the definition of the concept, including owner’s records, bookmarks, seals, stamps, inventory numbers and other book elements and signs that indicate the ownership of a book to a certain person or institution. For example, the Ukrainian bibliological studies of 1990s — 2010s describe in detail each constituent element of the provenance, as well as the peculiarities of interpretation of the meaning of the term. The paper considers the role and significance of the comprehensive study of provenance in the process of historical-bibliological analysis of manuscripts, early-printed and rare books, in revealing the features of social functioning of books in society, determining the composition of various book collections and study of readers of a certain historical period.

The practical use of the results of the research of provenance is to provide some assistance to library staff in the formation of specialized collections in libraries. Provenance in a kind of documentary form reflects the main features and characteristics of the historical, cultural and educational processes of the epoch. The study of provenance allows, in the absence of inventory records, to reconstruct the lost book collections, to explore the readership of a particular book and to trace the paths of its distribution.

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