From 28 February to 31 October, an exhibition "In the beginning was Polotsk. The 1150th anniversary of the city", runs at the Book Museum (3rd floor, room 348).
The exhibition is devoted to Polotsk, an ancient city of Belarus. Visitors can know about its significant events and the development of its book culture.
The exposition includes books of the 13th–16th centuries. Among them there are the folio of a chronicle of the Radzivil family, which includes the first mention about the city (862), ancient editions of chronicles dated the 16th century in theLatin and Polish languages: a book written by Matthew Streykovskey "Khronika polskaya, litovkaya i zhemoitskaya i vseya Rusi" (1582), Alexander Gvanini "Khronika Evropeyskoy Sarmatii" (1581, 1611). These booksinclude information about the Livonian war (1558–1583), during which Polotsk was many times the aim of conquest.
Polotsk is the city where such outstanding people as Francysk Skoryna and Simeon of Polotsk were born. In the main exposition of the Book Museum visitors can see Skoryna’s editions which were published in Prague. The proposed exhibition demonstrates collections of sermons written by Simeon of Polotsk "Obed dushevnuy" (1681) and "Vecherya dushevnaya" (1683).
The exhibition acquaints with Polotsk historic book collections such as library of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk (11–16 centuries), library of Polotsk Jesuit Collegium (16–19 centuries), and also with libraries of Polotsk theological seminary (19 century) and Polotsk military school (19–20 centuries). The exposition exhibits books whose belonging to Polotsk collections can be testified by ex-librises, seals and handwritten records. There are also ancient editions of the 18th century, which were printed by Polotsk Jesuit Collegium in the Polish and Latin languages. They include "Miesięcznik Połocki", the first magazine which has appeared in pre-revolutionary Belarus. There are on display editions which were published from the 19th and early 20th centuries. These books are devoted to the history and culture of Polotsk. The author of most of them is Alexei Sapunov, Belarusian historic, specialist in archeography and regional ethnography.
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