On the shelves of bookstores we can find weighty tomes and small books. Their format may be different. The smallest books in the world are miniatures. A fan of miniature books was Napoleon Bonaparte, who, during his military campaigns, drove his Miniature Traveler Library, it was placed in a special leather case and looked like one big book. L.I. also had his own collection. Brezhnev, he kept it in a desk.
The production of mini-books required special skill, so they were always published in small print runs. In Russia, such a book block should not exceed 100 mm, and in some countries of Europe and the USA other figures appear - 3 inches, i.e. 76 mm.
The very first printed Russian miniature book was “Saints” by Vasily Bursov, which appeared in 1639 and was in the format 71x97mm. Most of the miniature books are valuable copies, examples of the art of publishing, namely printing, illustration and binding.
List
- 10. Handbook of Joan of d'Evre, 60x90 mm
- 9. Book of Boccardino and Stefano di Tommaso Giovanni, 40x50 mm
- 8. "Diurnal", 65x94 mm, 1468 g
- 7. “South Russian book publishing F.A. Johanson "55 × 73 mm, 1981
- 6. "Eugene Onegin", 17x26 mm, 1899
- 5. "The Old King Cole" 1x1 mm, 1985
- 4. Chameleon, A. Konenko 0.9x * 0.9 mm, 2002
- 3. “Flowers of the four seasons” 0.74x0.75 mm, 2013
- 2. "Little Ted from the city of Ternip", Chaplin brothers, 70x100 microns, 2012
- 1. “Left-hander”, Vladimir Aniskin, 70x90 microns, 2016
10. Handbook of Joan of d'Evre, 60x90 mm
Joan of Evreux was the daughter of Louis of France, in 1325 became Queen of France, after she married Charles IV the Beautiful. Her husband ordered a miniature book for his wife.
Handbook of Joan of Evreux placed in leather binding. It has 418 pages. It closes with metal fasteners. The cover and spine have an elegant gold stamping. The book has 25 color illustrations, also illuminated by gold.
The book of books is now kept at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was made by Jean Pücel from the finest parchment. It is he who is credited with the discovery of the grisaille technique, thanks to which the pages of manuscripts turned into real works of art.
In the 19th century, the book belonged to the Rothschilds, first Adolf, then his nephew Maurice. In 1940, the Germans confiscated this valuable book, sending it to German territory. But in 1948 she was returned to the owner, and in 1954 he transferred it to the museum.
9. Book of Boccardino and Stefano di Tommaso Giovanni, 40x50 mm
Lorenzo Medici was a Florentine statesman, patron of the sciences and the arts. He married Clarice Orsini. This momentous event occurred in 1469. The wedding present of his uncle, Cardinal Giovanni Medici, was a miniature made by his father and son Boccardino and Stefano di Tommaso Giovanni.
This book is also protected by a leather binding; it can be closed with a silver lock. Each of the pages is decorated with a beautiful patterned ornament, there are a lot of sheets with drawings, it contains 157 pages in total.
She was placed in a velvet case with golden corners. It was accompanied by a magnifier in a silver frame, with a diameter of 4 cm. This unique work of art is stored at the University of Cambridge, at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
8. "Diurnal", 65x94 mm, 1468 g
The earliest extant printed thumbnail is “Diurnaly"Printed in tiny gothic. It was made by a student of Guttenberg, the first typographer in Europe, he created a special way of printing with moving letters. This has had a huge impact on world history and European culture.
Peter Schaeffer was not only his student, but also the successor of the work, and he was able to create this work of art. Only fragments of this book, which are now stored in Paris, in the National Library, have survived.
7. “South Russian book publishing F.A. Johanson "55 × 73 mm, 1981
Before the revolution, first in St. Petersburg, then in Kiev, lived the publisher, seller of books, Franz Johanson. In 1896 appeared "South Russian Book Publishing F.A. Johanson”, Which produced fiction, textbooks, and calendars.
It was she who first began to publish miniature books; as many as three series of the manual Baby were released. It was reference books, dictionaries, study guides, which were immediately sold out. They had an original and convenient format, they were perfect in terms of printing, therefore they were constantly reprinted.
It was Johanson who for the first time in Russia began to produce mini-books in mass circulation: about 120 books were published, the total circulation of which amounted to 2 million copies.
6. "Eugene Onegin", 17x26 mm, 1899
In the 19th century, the Warsaw publisher M. Scholz was known. In the printing house of P. Laskauer and V. Babitsky, he printed miniature books with zincographic forms. They were a kind of decoration, because placed inside a medallion made of silver or brass. A lens was built into the front cover.
M. Scholz has published many miniature books, including the Torah, the Qur'an, poetry, etc. But not so many copies have reached our time, because books of this size could easily get lost.
A great rarity is the anniversary edition of A.S. Pushkin, which became the smallest of all published books. It was printed in honor of the centenary of the birthday of the great poet.
As well as other books of this publisher, his "Eugene Onegin"Was placed in the locket with a" secret ", and it was possible to read it using a special lens placed on one side.
5. "The Old King Cole" 1x1 mm, 1985
Thanks to modern technologies, it was possible to create books that we could not even dream of before, for example, with a size of 1 mm. The first such record book appeared in 1985 in Scotland. Not only to read, but to make out it is quite difficult. You won’t be able to turn the pages of the book if you don’t have a needle at hand, but in this case you need to be careful not to damage the tiny edition.
The thickness of the paper of this book is 22 g / m2, on its pages a fairy tale "Old king cole". The owners of this unique publication are not so many, because it was published in a modest print run of 90 pieces.
4. Chameleon, A. Konenko 0.9x * 0.9 mm, 2002
One of the record holders, at one time included in the Guinness Book of Records, is a miniature edition, smaller than 1 mm in size. Our compatriots, the Omsk publishing house Sibirsky Levsha, worked on it, specializing in the creation of miniature books.
It printed the story of A.P. Chekhov's "Chameleon", the creator is Omsk artist Anatoly Kononenko. The publishing house issued 50 copies in Russian and the same number in English. Each book has a portrait of Chekhov, 15 sheets and 2 color illustrations. Each page of the book contains 11 lines of text. One of the specimens can be seen in the Museum of Miniatures, located in Prague.
3. “Flowers of the four seasons” 0.74x0.75 mm, 2013
The Japanese, who are proud of their technology, decided to overtake the Russians, and created a book a little smaller in size, which was called "Four seasons flowers". It was produced by Toppan Printing, which spent more than 8 months on it. On her pages, images of all colors of Japan with captions, but not color, but black and white, only 22 pages. The size of the letters is 0.01 m in height; it will not work to see the image without a special magnifying glass. To create a book, technology was used that is used to create money.
2. "Little Ted from the city of Ternip", Chaplin brothers, 70x100 microns, 2012
There are books that can only be read with a microscope. One of them, "Little Ted from Ternip”, Was printed on a single-crystal silicon chip, it can only be read with a powerful electron microscope, this mini-book is placed on a section of a human hair. To fill 30 pages of the book, I had to pay 15 thousand dollars.
1. “Left-hander”, Vladimir Aniskin, 70x90 microns, 2016
However, a record small book was made by Russian scientist Vladimir Aniskin from Novosibirsk. He spent 5 years to invent a special technology, technology and create this miniature, and then a month, manually, created books. One of them - "Left-handed" written by N. Leskovand the second is the alphabet.