Information potential of marginalia for biographical studies (exemplified by marginal notes made in books from private library of P. O. Adrianov (1855–193?))

Marginalia have been used by scientists as information source since the second part of the 19th century. They have already deliberated such aspects of marginalistics as causes of marginalia origin in various text types; form and content of marginal notes; logic of marginalia layout on certain manuscript or book page; nature of correlation between marginalia and basic text content; goals and objectives of certain readers' marks; formation of certain reading practices related tospecific text types and spreading of them to other content types, causes and mechanisms of that process; graphic form, technique, means used for inscribing; time period, and paternity (authorship). In the proposed publication, attention is focused on marginalia forms that aremostly in demand for biographical data collection. It is suggested to focus on the following forms: ownership inscriptions and notes of narrative nature (commemorative inscriptions, notes relating to purchase and price or inscriptions relevant to other circumstances of book acquisition), marks made or collating of library, and proper marginalia at page margins. It is emphasized that unlike the last formall other ones contain specific information that almost always is unequivocal and don't require any additional elucidation. Marginalia themselves should be additionally interpreted and studied. Practice of marginalia use for studying of a person's biography is exemplified by collection of books that formerly belonged to rather incomprehensible scientist Pavlo Oleksandrovych Adrianov (1855–193?) and currently reposited in the Department of Rare and Valuable Editions of the Vinnytsia Regional General-purpose Scientific Library named after K. A. Timiriazev.