Beschreibung:

[CONCEPTUAL BOOK]. Sputnik ot Sanktpeterburga do Moskvy. Sputnik ot Moskvy do Sanktpeterburga. Moscow: A. Semen, 1841. Rare first and only edition, of illustrious provenance, of this fascinating Russian guidebook, ‘the most conceptual book ever produced in Russia’ (Korneev). Of anonymous authorship, it is an account of a journey from St Petersburg to Moscow, before the construction of the first railway line. The text is only printed on the right-hand pages; the left-hand ones, reversed, feature the text of another travelogue. The book can indeed be turned over for an account of the opposite journey, from Moscow to St Petersburg. Though describing the same route, it is not the same narrative. It is now a bibliographic rarity. Count Sergei Stroganov (1794-1882) was a major collector, politician and philanthropist. The St Petersburg library of Prince Semen Mikhailovich Vorontsov (1823-82) contained 12,000 volumes, mostly inherited from his grandfather. WorldCat locates only one copy outside Russia. RBH records no other copies being offered at auction. Not in Smirnov-Sokol’skii, Moia biblioteka , Fekula or Kilgour. Y. Korneev, Kniga glazami dizainera , 2016, n.23, p. 45; B. Alekseev, ‘Dvoinoi “Sputnik”’, Ogoniok (1950), p. 31. Octavo (130 x 105mm). With one half-title, text reversed on verso of each leaf, pagination repeated in reverse from the end (wanting second half-title, light waterstaining to lower margins, first title a bit soiled, occasional thumb marks). Contemporary quarter calf, marbled boards, hand-coloured oval on paper stamped with gilt imperial eagle over a green background, spine gilt (joints a bit rubbed). Provenance: Count Sergei Stroganov (armorial bookplate) – M.S. Vorontsov (arms gilt to spine) – stamp ‘AB’ (on one title and couple of pages) – occasional pencilled annotations.