We study G.R. Derzhavin's personal library. The study is relevant due to the high historical and cultural significance of Gavriil Romanovich’s book collections. Reconstruction of his original collection – one of the most important areas of research of book culture of the late 18th century and, of course, the key story of the study of poet creativity sources. We analyze the thematic diversity of the preserved books, the history of the Derzhavin collection, its fate after the death of G.R. Derzhavin. Derzhavin’s library was transferred to D.V. Polenov – well-known diplomat and bibliophile of his time, and then entered the Naryshkin special library of Tambov. The study of the qualitative and quantitative composition of the transferred collections allowed to establish the safety of 293 volumes from his collection. The collection is distinguished by special brown leather bindings with flyleaf of decorative paper (presumably handmade), a lot of tray copies. Part of the journals convolutes from Derzhavin’s collection are bound in hard cardboard paper with a rectangular label-sticker of the early 19th century, reflecting the name of the journal, the year of publication and superexlibris “G. D.” (Gavriil Derzhavin). Analysis of Derzhavin's books from the library demonstrated a significant diversity of reading interests of G.R. Derzhavin. His library has preserved many rare lifetime copies of odes, letters, epigrams, messages of famous authors of the 18th century, a huge number of periodicals. The method of instance analysis of literature made it possible to identify and analyze the author’s marginalia on the poet’s books, their significance for the characteristics of the poet’s literary work.