60 historical essays about the city of the 18th–19th centuries
Де-Рибас А. Старая Одесса: исторические очерки и воспоминания / Александр Де-Рибас. – Одесса: Тип. Акционерного Южно-Русского О-ва Печатного Дела, 1913. – [8], 379, [1] с., 14 л. портр., 1 л. ил.
Oleksandr Mykhailovych Deribas (1856–1937) was a talented journalist, local historian, bibliographer, and writer. Beginning in 1905, Deribas published essays on the history of Odesa in the newspapers “Odesskie novosti” and “Odesskiy listok”. These amounted to more than 60 separate historical essays about the city of the 18th–19th centuries, which were later included in the book “Staraia Odessa”. The first edition of this book was published in Odesa in 1913, with a print run of 1,075 copies (on special paper). The edition was illustrated with reproductions of engravings depicting various parts of the city, allowing readers to see how Odesa changed over the decades.