Rare books from Bookvica

St. Petersburg: Academy of Science, 1866. 1. O funktsiyakh, naimenee uklonyaushchikhsya ot nulya [i.e. On the Functions with the Smallest Deviation from Zero]. St. Petersburg: Academy of Science, 1873. 32 pp. 25x16 cm. 2. O razlozhenii funktsiy v ryady pri pomoshchi nepreryvnykh drobey [i.e. On Functions Decomposition Using Continuous Fractions]. St. Petersburg: Academy of Science, 1866. 26 pp. 25x16 cm. No wrappers as issued. Uncut. Near fine. Two rare imprints of Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev's (1821-1894) important contributions to the theory of approximation of functions. In both works Chebyshev wrote about phenomenon now known as Chebyshev polynomials (a sequence of orthogonal polynomials which can be defined recursively), their qualities and features. Chebyshev polynomial is a polynomial with the largest possible leading coefficient, but subject to the condition that their absolute value on the interval [-1,1] is bounded by 1. Chebyshev polynomials are important in approximation theory because… Read More

St. Petersburg: A. Golovachov, 1866. [4], II, 186 pp. 8vo. Contemporary quarter-leather binding. The name of the author and the book title as well as owner's initials in gilt on the spine. Owner's private stamp on the title. Some side foxing on the first seven pages of the text and on the last five. The top of the spine has been restored. Overall copy is in good condition. Very rare. First edition of the ground-breaking work that established the basis of the Russian School of Physiology. Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov (1829-1905) single-handedly created this field of Russian science, by introducing electrophysiology and neurophysiology into medical laboratories. This is one of the main works by Sechenov. Originally an article with the same name was to be printed in Sovremennik, the most influential periodical of the time, but thst was forbidden by the censor, and it was published in 1863 in the medical journal, Meditsinsky vestnik. The expanded book version, now a classic text, appeared four years… Read More

Stockholm: Severnye ogni, 1921. 199 pp. 8vo. A fine clean copy. Contemporary cloth binding, original wrappers preserved. Light tanning to the wrappers, slightly rubbed on the extremities of the covers. Rare. The first Russian translation of the world-famous work was printed in Stockholm by Russian emigrant publishers. John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was considered to be one of the most influential economists of the 20th century. His second book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, was published in late 1919 and became an immediate success on both sides of the Atlantic. The work established Keynes's reputation with the public as a leading economist. In six months, the book had sold 100,000 copies with translations into 12 languages. In this work he gave an eloquent and detailed analysis of the Versailles Treaty and made a convincing case that it would have far-reaching and damaging consequences. He wrote that "...if we aim at the impoverishment of central Europe, vengeance, I dare predict, will… Read More

Moscow, 1898. 15,7х10,6 cm. Photographed in the studio by V. Chekhovsky. Early Shalyapin's autographs are very rare. Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin (1873-1938) was a remarkable Russian opera singer whose vivid declamation, great resonance, and dynamic acting made him the best-known singer-actor of his time. He was very involved in his international carrier, and he had a great impact on the world of opera singing. In 1896-1899 he sang in opera house of Savva Mamontov. Those four seasons made him famous as he developed a lot and moved to performing first parts and solos.

Moscow: Tip. tov-va I.D. Sytina, 1917. 16 pp. In original printed wrappers. Covers rubbed with small tears of the spine. Piece of a contemporary newspaper with new alphabet glued to the front cover. Owner's pencil markings in the text. First book on a new Russian orthography with rules of the spelling and grammar and a scientific explanation of the reform. Pavel Nikitich Sakulin (1868-1930) - Russian doctor of philology and literature, member of Academy of Sciences. He was one of initiators of the Russian orthography reform. The orthography committee was created by Academy of Sciences in 1904. Some of suggested changes were pretty radical. It is widely believed that Bolsheviks and their despotism were the reason of this reform. True that the decree of the reform was first published just two months after the October revolution but it was being prepared for many years by the best Russian linguists of the time. Nevertheless this reform became the symbol of change that Bolsheviks were bringing for the… Read More

Berlin; Paris: Russkoe iskusstvo, 1921-1926. #1-14. Ca. 32x25 cm. Every issue in illustrated wrappers. Generally very good, some mild soiling, with tiny tears and losses of the spine (#1,2,12,14), foxing and piece of tape on the spine (#13). A complete set. Extremely rare in wrappers. Lavishly illustrated throughout with black and white and color plates with captions. Print run was approximately 300 copies. Zhar-ptitsa is 'perhaps the most famous of post-revolutionary art journals, whose contributors threw new light on the development of Russian art at the beginning of the twentieth century' (Fekula). By the early 1920s, a large Russian emigre colony had formed in Germany, and the hyperinflation that swept over the country turned it into a paradise for publishers who found the conditions under which the output of books was much cheaper than anywhere else in Western Europe. All this caused a 'Russian book boom' on the banks of the Rhine: about 50 Russian publishers worked in Berlin at that time.… Read More

Full set for 11 years (1962-1972). Overall 132 issues in 22 cloth bindings (original blue wrappers preserved). Occasional foxing, damp stains (vol.2 1968), front cover damaged (#12 1968). Otherwise very good. Novy mir is one of the oldest monthly literary magazines in modern Russian. It has been published in Moscow since January 1925. It's base was Izvestiya publishing house, and in the first year it was edited and supervised by A.V. Lunacharsky and Yu. Steklov. At first, Novy Mir mainly published prose that approved of the general line of the Communist Party. In the early 1960s, it changed its political stance, leaning to a dissident position. The words ''Novy mir'', ''Tvardovski's magazine'' became symbolic, causing delight and respect among some readers, and gnashing of teeth among others (especially in official instances). A lot has been written about those years, about that edition, its fate, including on the pages of the magazine. Tvardovski's Novy Mir is one of the brightest pages in the… Read More

Moscow: Sel'khozgiz, 1940. [126] pp.: ill. 29x23 cm. In original cloth with gilt embossed design and gilt lettering on the front cover and spine (faded). Slightly rubbed, few defects of the back cover, some soiling of lower outer corner, otherwise very good. First and only edition. One of 5000 copies. Design by A. Belov. Illustrated throughout with black and white photographs and photomontages as well as three leaves with colored illustrations. Extremely rare with only copy located in Ohio University. One of the Soviet photobooks of animal husbandry connected with VDNKh pavilions. Richly illustrated, the edition opens with a woodcut title page; both chapters have half-titles with photographs of the appropriate pavilion. The books of VDNKh often start with its main entrance and this one shows a sculpture "Tractor Driver and Female Farmer" installed on a high pedestal (overall 13,5 meters) near the original (pre-war) entrance. In the 1950s the sculpture was changed and moved atop the entrance itself.… Read More

Saint Petersburg: Ory, 1907. 96, [8] pp. 13,5x10 cm. In original two-color printed wrappers with publisher's vignette (doubled on t.p.) designed by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. Near fine. Second edition printed the same year. Rare. First Russian novel that openly discussed lesbianism. It was created by female poet and writer Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal (1866-1907) who was close enough to Narodniks, she was full of revolutionary ideas. Together with her second spouse, poet Vyacheslav Ivanov, she hosted symbolist meetings ('On the Tower', called because the meetings were held on the tower) and sponsored their small-run publishing house 'Ory' printing symbolist works. The novel was written in late 1906, but the censorship saw "the signs of a crime" (promotion of depriving behavior) and decided to forbid the book. The print run was arrested for a few months. By this time, the first Russian gay novel had already printed. Kuzmin's 'Wings' (1906) filled up the whole issue of 'Vesy'. The main periodicals of… Read More

Moscow: Der Farband, 1932. 20 pp.: ill. 31x23 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Covers detached from the text block, tears to spine, small pieces of paper glued to the first and last pages, otherwise very good. One of 4000 copies. In Yiddish. An issue of the first Jewish atheist monthly that was published in 1931-1935. The Soviet authorities embarked on bizarre yet extensive propaganda against Judaism from the first months of the Soviet regime. Among the activities of the Evsection of the Communist Party (1918-1930) was a campaign against this religion. A number of "public trials" against such institutions as сheders, yeshivas and synagogues were staged in Kiev, Vitebsk, Rostov, etc. Closed and nationalized synagogues were turned into workers' clubs. Rabbis were blamed for both trotskyism and agitation against Birobidzhan; they were arrested, imprisoned, and exiled to camps. In 1925, the League of Militant Atheists was formed, and consisted of 5 million members by 1932 and about 22 million by… Read More

Moscow: tip. V. Grachiova, 1862. 304 pp. In contemporary Italian half-leather. Gilt ornament on the spine. 24x17 cm. Pre-revolutionary stamps of the Russian library in Rome on the title page alongside the inventory numbers, otherwise a good tall fresh copy of an important and rare book. The first separate edition of Ivan Turgenev's (1818-1883) Otsy i deti [i.e. Fathers and Sons]. Fathers and Sons is considered to be the most famous novel by Turgenev. It first appeared in 1862 in Russkii vestnik [i.e. The Russian Herald]. After this publication, Turgenev prepared the novel for a separate edition by editing the text: he added a dedication to his mentor and liberal critic Belinsky (1811-1848). The dedication represented an important message to Turgenev's friends and enemies and pointed to the democratic nature of the novel. The author also removed some of Bazarov's unpleasant features (some call him the first Bolshevik in Russian literature). In his letter to Gertsen, Ivan wrote: ...while inventing… Read More

Leningrad: Izd. Leningradskogo soiuza sovetskikh arkhitektorov, 1935. [6], 272, [10] pp.: ill. 30,5x24,5 cm. In original cloth with blind debossed lettering and a colored image on the front cover, blind embossed lettering on the spine. Tears of the spine, chipped, slightly soiled, otherwise very good. One of 3,600 copies. Title pages and names of the contributors printed on the verso side are in Russian and French. Compiled and edited by a number of people, including Andrei Belogrud who died before the edition was published. Cover design was produced by the Soviet Jewish graphic artist and type designer Mark (Meer-Vol'f) Kirnarskii (1893-1942). He studied at the Petrograd and Kyiv Academies of Arts under I. Fomin and G. Narbut, respectively. Kirnarskii joined the art group the Community of Painters in 1924 and in the same year became engaged in typography. He participated in the exhibition Book Art twice, first in Leipzig in 1927, and then in Paris in 1931. Layout was created by I. Antonov and I.… Read More

Petrograd: 17-ya Gos. tip., 1920. 84 pp. 8vo. Original printed wrappers with a color lithograph by Malevich on each wrapper. Spine restored, otherwise very good copy. A rare example of Malevich's application of Suprematism to book design. Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) famously proclaimed in the catalog to the Tenth State Exhibition in 1917: «I have broken the blue shade of color boundaries and come out into white. Behind me comrade pilots swim in the whiteness. I have established the semaphore of Suprematism.» Yet Nikolai Punin didn't see the Suprematism of Malevich as a new base for national artistic tradition. «For him it was too individualistic to serve this mighty purpose.» However, it did not stop him from being interested in Malevich's work. It is no coincidence that the front cover of this book was designed by the artist. Nikolai Nikolaevich Punin (1888-1935) was a Russian art scholar and writer. His circle of friends included Mayakovsky, Malevich, Tatlin, Lebedev and others. He was also a… Read More

Moscow: Tsentrifuga, 1917. 94 pp.+ 2 pp. of ads. 23x15 cm. In original wrappers with title mounted. Slightly faded, some foxing on front cover, minor tear of spine, otherwise very good. Signed by the author on a leaf inserted: "To dear sister Olya, with regular for relatives feeling of tenderness, guilt and disarray about swiftness of life. From Borya. 15.XI.40. Peredelkino". By 1940, the Soviet authorities changed their attitude towards Boris Pasternak. He was criticized for "detachment from life" and "worldview that didn't correspond to the era". They unconditionally demanded an ideological restructuring of his poetry. In 1936, he settled in a dacha in Peredelkino where he lived intermittently until his death. Pasternak began signing his earlier publications, since he was banned from printing new ones. First edition. One of 500 copies produced. The second book of poetry by Boris Pasternak (1890-1960). The collection includes poems written in 1914-1916, under influence of futurism. The year 1917… Read More

Odessa: Yugo-LEF, 1924. 16 pp. 26,5x18 cm. In original constructivist wrappers. Spine, wrappers, outer corners of pages restored, otherwise very good. Between the last leaf and the back cover, one advertisement from a pre-revolutionary book is inserted. The second of five issues produced. One of 3000 copies. Extremely rare. Cover design created by Nikolay Sokolov (1904-1990). He designed all issues, except for the first one. Yugo-LEF as the group existed for less than a year. It was formed in April of 1924. The editorial board of the magazine included three writers - Leonid Nedolia, Semyon Kirsanov, Sergey Bondarin, and two artists - Nikolay Sokolov and Nikolay Danilov. Ukrainian-born poet Leonid Nedolia became the main manager of the group. At that time he just returned from Moscow where he was the editor-in-chief of the satirical periodical 'Krysodav' [i.e. The Rat-Crusher], so he worked with Mayakovsky, Igor Terentiev, Kruchyonykh, Meyerhold, Dmitrii Moor, etc. Over the course of the year, the… Read More