When talking about the destiny of books and libraries in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, we usually ref... more When talking about the destiny of books and libraries in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, we usually refer to historical events and leave aside the study of persons, who lived and acted at the time. Their daily activities and hobbies often influenced a shift in the history of a collection. This article was written in order to determine how the personality and activities of churchmen Pavel Dobrochotov have influenced the fate of the manuscript collection kept in the library of Zhyrovichy monastery. The study was carried out by using archival sources from Zhyrovichy monastery, preserved in Wroblewski library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and provenances of manuscripts, kept in Saint Petersburg and Vilnius. The manuscript Collection of Sermons by Isaac of Nineveh, copied in 15th century GDL, was chosen to illustrate the hypothesis. The book was sometime divided into two parts that are now stored separately in the National Library of Russia and the Wroblewski Library of LAS. The histo...
More and more often a family’s or kin history and its influence on all branches of state’s vitali... more More and more often a family’s or kin history and its influence on all branches of state’s vitality are being analyzed in order to research Lithuania’s history. The history of everyday life is also being taken into account. The main sources for the research are egodocuments, which help to more comprehensively reveal the most important occurrences and processes of various epochs, the connections and relationships of the society. This gives to the historical narrative some completeness and colourfulness. Some of the manuscripts, held in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (later on – WBLAS), have also been examined and are being prepared for publication at the moment. Yet the majority of them are still waiting for their researchers. The aim of this article is to analyze the egodocuments, held in the archives of the WBLAS, in typological, chronological, linguistic and other aspects. In this research, the definition „egodocument“ is being used in the narrow sens...
Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences is rich with the treasures of written legacy, many ... more Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences is rich with the treasures of written legacy, many of which are unique and particularly fragile and is, therefore, difficult to access to ordinary readers as well as scientists. Progress of digital technologies and the establishing virtual space allows bringing the most valuable documents back from the distant past and inaccessible safe boxes to researchers, by creating new working environment - a digital archive. The first step towards the digital archive in the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences was made in 1997 with the development of a database of bibliographic data of the documents. In the Library, bibliographic-information system ALISE (Advanced Library Information Service), developed in Latvia, was introduced. The first attempt to create the archive of digital images was the project “Parchments’ digital images archive preserved in the Manuscript Department of the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences”, sponsored...
Article analyzes the architectonics of the manuscript book of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) ... more Article analyzes the architectonics of the manuscript book of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) and its development from the 14th century to the mid-16th century (i. e. to 1569). The most attention is accorded to the essential structure of the manuscript book as a characteristic that most precisely corresponds to the perception and reception of books in the then society and that explains the reasons for the formation of certain types of books in the GDL. The present study has identified distinctive features of the internal structure of the book and demonstrated the existence of a mutual interaction of the printed and manuscript book, a phenomenon that influenced both book repertoire and decoration
Lithuanian and international historiography contains a great deal of information about the nature... more Lithuanian and international historiography contains a great deal of information about the nature of the collections and the exhibition of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. The collections of archaeology and art have been analysed, and in the newest research, attention has been drawn to the structure of Eustachy Tyszkiewicz’s (1814-1873) private library that was transferred to the museum. The main stages of the development of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities have also received research attention. However, the museums collection of manuscript documents, quite large even for our times, and its complicated fate have never been analysed beyond two basic statements: 1) the basis of the manuscript collection of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities consisted of the document collection accumulated by Tyszkiewicz and later supplemented by various individuals and public institutions; 2) the collection formed after the museums reorganisation in 1865 was handed over to the newly established Viln...
During World War II Vladas Drema (1910-1995) worked as a chief curator of the Belarusian Museum i... more During World War II Vladas Drema (1910-1995) worked as a chief curator of the Belarusian Museum in Vilnius. In 1944 he sought employment in the Manuscript department of the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, as he was writing a research paper on the art of manuscripts and printed books in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). Drema’s personal portfolio holds two archival documents on the same topic and a fragment from the first part of his research study. The latter includes extracts, drawings, photographs and separate texts that provided the basis for this article. It aims to clarify what the art historian discovered while researching the history of the manuscript in the GDL and whether he can be described as the first Lithuanian manuscript historian. With the help of the surviving manuscripts, some now attempt to establish what criteria he used when gathering research material and selecting books or their fragments. The question arises as to what book samples the histori...
This article aims to uncover what knowledge about manuscript books of this time period has been a... more This article aims to uncover what knowledge about manuscript books of this time period has been acquired so far, whether the traditional manufacturing style of manuscript books was retained or it was brought closer to the one applied to printed books. Books currently stored in the Manuscript department of the WLLAS were selected as the object of this inquiry. Based on updated dating, 112 exemplars from libraries of Suprasl, Zhyrovichy, Markov and other monasteries were selected and studied de visu in the aspect of Book Science. The results obtained are only preliminary due to a limited number of studied samples. Therefore most remaining exemplars are written in Cyrillic for Orthodox and Uniate Churches. After comparing manuscript and printed books, it is evident that transcription process had been taking place in a two-way manner from the middle of the XVI c. up to the XVII c. While printed books were prepared and printed based solely on manuscripts held in libraries of monasteries,...
The aim of the research is to analyse from the perspective of book science the reception and deve... more The aim of the research is to analyse from the perspective of book science the reception and development of the manuscript book culture in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 14th century to the second half of the 16th century. The reception of book culture in the GDL is examined in the context of long-term political, denominational, social, cultural and mental processes. For a long time such subjects as the manuscript book of the GDL and the conditions of its dissemination attracted only fragmentary attention. Upon abandonment of the use of the language criterion in culture history, the scope of research in the history of the manuscript book significantly expanded. Bringing together those culture components that were considered in historiography to be of a strictly national nature yielded a cross-cultural corpus of the GDL‘s manuscript books, which is instrumental for a new interpretation of the facts. This enabled the author to investigate separate processes of the development o...
It may be suggested that within the cultural history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter... more It may be suggested that within the cultural history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter GDL) the question of manuscript books and their patrons has not been discussed as a result of the language criteria applied to the written language and history of the book. The principle for the attribution of artefacts established by researchers - "everything that was re-created was assimilated or created in the Duchy or by its citizens in it and behind its boundaries" - has allowed us to cast a fresh eye over much of the cultural phenomena of the period (the patronage of a manuscript book amongst them). The article aims to ascertain how well guarded the culture of the manuscript book was in the GDL, and who was responsible for its upkeep. To achieve such aims the article makes extensive reference to the surviving copies of manuscript books and surviving inscriptions regarding the circumstances surrounding the books' rewriting and their function, and it also makes referen...
The aim of the research is to analyse from the perspective of book science the reception and deve... more The aim of the research is to analyse from the perspective of book science the reception and development of the manuscript book culture in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 14th century to the second half of the 16th century. The reception of book culture in the GDL is examined in the context of long-term political, denominational, social, cultural and mental processes. For a long time such subjects as the manuscript book of the GDL and the conditions of its dissemination attracted only fragmentary attention. Upon abandonment of the use of the language criterion in culture history, the scope of research in the history of the manuscript book significantly expanded. Bringing together those culture components that were considered in historiography to be of a strictly national nature yielded a cross-cultural corpus of the GDL‘s manuscript books, which is instrumental for a new interpretation of the facts. This enabled the author to investigate separate processes of the development o...
The history of publishing in Lithuania begins with the early formation of the Lithuanian state in... more The history of publishing in Lithuania begins with the early formation of the Lithuanian state in the 13th century. As the state was taking shape over many centuries, its name, government, and territory kept changing along with its culture and the prevailing language of writing and printing. Geographically spread across Central and Eastern Europe, the state was multinational, its multilayered culture shaped by the synthesis of the Latin and Greek civilizations. Furthermore, the state was multiconfessional: both Latin and Orthodox Christianity were evolving in its territory. These historical circumstances led to the emergence of a unique book culture at the end of the manuscript book period (the late 15th and the early 16th century). In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), writing centers were formed that later frequently became printing houses; books were written in Latin, Church Slavonic, and Ruthenian, with two writing systems (Latin and Cyrillic) coexisting, and their texts and ar...
As far back as at the beginning of the 20th century, the book historian V. Biržiska noted that i... more As far back as at the beginning of the 20th century, the book historian V. Biržiska noted that in the 15th century, GDL manuscript books not only did not disappear, but also expanded their repertoire. On the basis of the latest historical research and sources, the article aims to describe and assess the historical conditions, social and cultural processes that led to the manuscript book development, spread and functioning. The article bases its conclusions on the information from surviving manuscript books and archival sources. The paper analyses the phenomena that had a direct impact on the development of the book: the Christianization of the land, aspiration for the reunion of churches, the establishment and development of the sovereign estate and chancellery, the beginning of education. Thus, the history of GDL manuscript books is closely related to the first half of the 14th c. The establishment and development of the sovereign estate and the institutions of the Catholic Ch...
When talking about the destiny of books and libraries in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, we usually ref... more When talking about the destiny of books and libraries in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, we usually refer to historical events and leave aside the study of persons, who lived and acted at the time. Their daily activities and hobbies often influenced a shift in the history of a collection. This article was written in order to determine how the personality and activities of churchmen Pavel Dobrochotov have influenced the fate of the manuscript collection kept in the library of Zhyrovichy monastery. The study was carried out by using archival sources from Zhyrovichy monastery, preserved in Wroblewski library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and provenances of manuscripts, kept in Saint Petersburg and Vilnius. The manuscript Collection of Sermons by Isaac of Nineveh, copied in 15th century GDL, was chosen to illustrate the hypothesis. The book was sometime divided into two parts that are now stored separately in the National Library of Russia and the Wroblewski Library of LAS. The histo...
More and more often a family’s or kin history and its influence on all branches of state’s vitali... more More and more often a family’s or kin history and its influence on all branches of state’s vitality are being analyzed in order to research Lithuania’s history. The history of everyday life is also being taken into account. The main sources for the research are egodocuments, which help to more comprehensively reveal the most important occurrences and processes of various epochs, the connections and relationships of the society. This gives to the historical narrative some completeness and colourfulness. Some of the manuscripts, held in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (later on – WBLAS), have also been examined and are being prepared for publication at the moment. Yet the majority of them are still waiting for their researchers. The aim of this article is to analyze the egodocuments, held in the archives of the WBLAS, in typological, chronological, linguistic and other aspects. In this research, the definition „egodocument“ is being used in the narrow sens...
Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences is rich with the treasures of written legacy, many ... more Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences is rich with the treasures of written legacy, many of which are unique and particularly fragile and is, therefore, difficult to access to ordinary readers as well as scientists. Progress of digital technologies and the establishing virtual space allows bringing the most valuable documents back from the distant past and inaccessible safe boxes to researchers, by creating new working environment - a digital archive. The first step towards the digital archive in the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences was made in 1997 with the development of a database of bibliographic data of the documents. In the Library, bibliographic-information system ALISE (Advanced Library Information Service), developed in Latvia, was introduced. The first attempt to create the archive of digital images was the project “Parchments’ digital images archive preserved in the Manuscript Department of the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences”, sponsored...
Article analyzes the architectonics of the manuscript book of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) ... more Article analyzes the architectonics of the manuscript book of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) and its development from the 14th century to the mid-16th century (i. e. to 1569). The most attention is accorded to the essential structure of the manuscript book as a characteristic that most precisely corresponds to the perception and reception of books in the then society and that explains the reasons for the formation of certain types of books in the GDL. The present study has identified distinctive features of the internal structure of the book and demonstrated the existence of a mutual interaction of the printed and manuscript book, a phenomenon that influenced both book repertoire and decoration
Lithuanian and international historiography contains a great deal of information about the nature... more Lithuanian and international historiography contains a great deal of information about the nature of the collections and the exhibition of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. The collections of archaeology and art have been analysed, and in the newest research, attention has been drawn to the structure of Eustachy Tyszkiewicz’s (1814-1873) private library that was transferred to the museum. The main stages of the development of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities have also received research attention. However, the museums collection of manuscript documents, quite large even for our times, and its complicated fate have never been analysed beyond two basic statements: 1) the basis of the manuscript collection of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities consisted of the document collection accumulated by Tyszkiewicz and later supplemented by various individuals and public institutions; 2) the collection formed after the museums reorganisation in 1865 was handed over to the newly established Viln...
During World War II Vladas Drema (1910-1995) worked as a chief curator of the Belarusian Museum i... more During World War II Vladas Drema (1910-1995) worked as a chief curator of the Belarusian Museum in Vilnius. In 1944 he sought employment in the Manuscript department of the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, as he was writing a research paper on the art of manuscripts and printed books in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). Drema’s personal portfolio holds two archival documents on the same topic and a fragment from the first part of his research study. The latter includes extracts, drawings, photographs and separate texts that provided the basis for this article. It aims to clarify what the art historian discovered while researching the history of the manuscript in the GDL and whether he can be described as the first Lithuanian manuscript historian. With the help of the surviving manuscripts, some now attempt to establish what criteria he used when gathering research material and selecting books or their fragments. The question arises as to what book samples the histori...
This article aims to uncover what knowledge about manuscript books of this time period has been a... more This article aims to uncover what knowledge about manuscript books of this time period has been acquired so far, whether the traditional manufacturing style of manuscript books was retained or it was brought closer to the one applied to printed books. Books currently stored in the Manuscript department of the WLLAS were selected as the object of this inquiry. Based on updated dating, 112 exemplars from libraries of Suprasl, Zhyrovichy, Markov and other monasteries were selected and studied de visu in the aspect of Book Science. The results obtained are only preliminary due to a limited number of studied samples. Therefore most remaining exemplars are written in Cyrillic for Orthodox and Uniate Churches. After comparing manuscript and printed books, it is evident that transcription process had been taking place in a two-way manner from the middle of the XVI c. up to the XVII c. While printed books were prepared and printed based solely on manuscripts held in libraries of monasteries,...
The aim of the research is to analyse from the perspective of book science the reception and deve... more The aim of the research is to analyse from the perspective of book science the reception and development of the manuscript book culture in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 14th century to the second half of the 16th century. The reception of book culture in the GDL is examined in the context of long-term political, denominational, social, cultural and mental processes. For a long time such subjects as the manuscript book of the GDL and the conditions of its dissemination attracted only fragmentary attention. Upon abandonment of the use of the language criterion in culture history, the scope of research in the history of the manuscript book significantly expanded. Bringing together those culture components that were considered in historiography to be of a strictly national nature yielded a cross-cultural corpus of the GDL‘s manuscript books, which is instrumental for a new interpretation of the facts. This enabled the author to investigate separate processes of the development o...
It may be suggested that within the cultural history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter... more It may be suggested that within the cultural history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter GDL) the question of manuscript books and their patrons has not been discussed as a result of the language criteria applied to the written language and history of the book. The principle for the attribution of artefacts established by researchers - "everything that was re-created was assimilated or created in the Duchy or by its citizens in it and behind its boundaries" - has allowed us to cast a fresh eye over much of the cultural phenomena of the period (the patronage of a manuscript book amongst them). The article aims to ascertain how well guarded the culture of the manuscript book was in the GDL, and who was responsible for its upkeep. To achieve such aims the article makes extensive reference to the surviving copies of manuscript books and surviving inscriptions regarding the circumstances surrounding the books' rewriting and their function, and it also makes referen...
The aim of the research is to analyse from the perspective of book science the reception and deve... more The aim of the research is to analyse from the perspective of book science the reception and development of the manuscript book culture in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 14th century to the second half of the 16th century. The reception of book culture in the GDL is examined in the context of long-term political, denominational, social, cultural and mental processes. For a long time such subjects as the manuscript book of the GDL and the conditions of its dissemination attracted only fragmentary attention. Upon abandonment of the use of the language criterion in culture history, the scope of research in the history of the manuscript book significantly expanded. Bringing together those culture components that were considered in historiography to be of a strictly national nature yielded a cross-cultural corpus of the GDL‘s manuscript books, which is instrumental for a new interpretation of the facts. This enabled the author to investigate separate processes of the development o...
The history of publishing in Lithuania begins with the early formation of the Lithuanian state in... more The history of publishing in Lithuania begins with the early formation of the Lithuanian state in the 13th century. As the state was taking shape over many centuries, its name, government, and territory kept changing along with its culture and the prevailing language of writing and printing. Geographically spread across Central and Eastern Europe, the state was multinational, its multilayered culture shaped by the synthesis of the Latin and Greek civilizations. Furthermore, the state was multiconfessional: both Latin and Orthodox Christianity were evolving in its territory. These historical circumstances led to the emergence of a unique book culture at the end of the manuscript book period (the late 15th and the early 16th century). In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), writing centers were formed that later frequently became printing houses; books were written in Latin, Church Slavonic, and Ruthenian, with two writing systems (Latin and Cyrillic) coexisting, and their texts and ar...
As far back as at the beginning of the 20th century, the book historian V. Biržiska noted that i... more As far back as at the beginning of the 20th century, the book historian V. Biržiska noted that in the 15th century, GDL manuscript books not only did not disappear, but also expanded their repertoire. On the basis of the latest historical research and sources, the article aims to describe and assess the historical conditions, social and cultural processes that led to the manuscript book development, spread and functioning. The article bases its conclusions on the information from surviving manuscript books and archival sources. The paper analyses the phenomena that had a direct impact on the development of the book: the Christianization of the land, aspiration for the reunion of churches, the establishment and development of the sovereign estate and chancellery, the beginning of education. Thus, the history of GDL manuscript books is closely related to the first half of the 14th c. The establishment and development of the sovereign estate and the institutions of the Catholic Ch...
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