Ex-libris in the book culture of the Tambov governorate of the second half of the 19th – early 20th century

We analyze ex-libris of Tambov owners of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. The relevance of the research is due to the need to fill the historiographic gap in the study of private libraries of the pre-revolutionary Tambov region. The main source for the work is the collection of civil press books, stored in the Tambov Regional Universal Scientific Library named after A.S. Pushkin. The significance of this collection is determined by the personality of bibliophiles – outstanding statesmen and public figures of the Russian Empire. On their estates, they were able to accumulate huge collections, in terms of the variety of repertoire not inferior to the libraries of Feofan Prokopovich, D.M. Golitsyn, M.V. Lomonosov. The collections contain many ex-libris, reflecting the ownership of a particular edition. The study of the identified collections and their book signs formed the basis of the substantial conclusions of the publication. We analyze the main characteristics of the most common types of ex-libris, showing the transition from a heraldic sign to a plot-shaped one. Consideration of the graphic material of the region’s largest libraries (collections of S.D. Sheremetyev, L.A. Voeikov, A.K. Kugushev, A.N. Nortsov) allows us to talk about the rich book culture of the owners of manor libraries of the second half of the 19th – early 20th century, a variety of plots and artistic performance of the created ex-libris.