Vinius’s Book Collection

Abstract

Andrei Vinius was among the first of Russian lay bibliophiles, about whose book collection a great amount of information remains available. The texts provide an insight into his mind. Taking into account his practical activities, he appears to have been a latter- day product of Renaissance humanism, albeit affected by the Scientific Revolution that unfolded in his lifetime. His books link Russia’s transformation of the last decades of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century to the spread of Western treatises among Russia’s elite. As a member of this upper crust, Vinius was a pioneer in exploring the novel ideas that these works expounded.