JAŠIŪNAI MANOR AS A SPACE FOR WRITING LITHUANIAN HISTORY
The aim of this article is to discuss the Jašiūnai manor (Pol. Jaszuny; Russ. Яшуны; Vilniaus
Governorate, Vilnius County), owned by the historian, journalist, poet, translator and
collector Michał vel Michał Wincenty Feliks Baliński (1794–1864). The manor will be discussed not only as a cultural hub for intellectuals in a general sense, but also as a unique space for writing Lithuanian history. The term “space” is understood here in the broad sense, as of the manor—as well as in the more narrow sense, as of the library itself (the historian’s office). Especially important for this research was the latter concept of a “space within a space”, the “historian’s workshop”, and its epicenter—the archive (manuscript collection). The aim of the research was to reconstruct the story of the emergence and fate of this collection of documents including its contents, sources, and most importantly its thematic direction and distinctiveness.
The research showed that the largest collection of historical documents once housed in
the archive of the Jašiūnai manor library is now kept in the Jagiellonian Library (Krakow).
This material remains important to the history of the city of Vilnius, Vilnius University, and Lithuania’s academic history. Supplementary elements include attention to the Radvila family, the period of Steponas Batoras’s rule, and the history of the Szubrawcy (rascals) Society. This last component can be considered as an integral part not only of the history of Vilnius city but also of its university.
The dual nature of the Jašiūnai archive is not necessarily an asset. When the library and
archive of Jan vel Jan Chrzciciel Władysław Sniadecki vel Śniadecki (1756–1830) was transferred to the manor, Baliński’s own collection, which initially focused on the history of Lithuanian cities and Szubrawcy Society (especially of the latter), wound up relegated to the background. Keeping in mind the “competition for libraries” among the intellectual manors of Lithuania in the first half of the 19th century as they sought to distinguish themselves, it is very possible to conclude that the former University rector’s installment in the manor can today be viewed as a “historical error”. Thus Jašiūnai lost some of its playfulness and distinctiveness in the context of other intellectual manors of that time. The situation would have been different if the Auszlawis (such was Balinski’s pseudonym in the Szubrawcy Society) collection had been associated not with Jan Sniadecki, but rather with the documentary legacy of Sotwaros (i.e. Jędrzej Sniadecki vel Śniadecki [1768–1838]), especially his documentation of the Szubrawcy. All the more so since the egodocuments of Balinski suggest the idea that its real hero was not Sniadecki the Elder, but Sniadecki Jr. Analysis of the Balinski archival collection only confirmed that which was shown by the previously executed so-called common biographical research of this historian and lord: he was relegated to the background by circumstances. That is to say, relegated to a life lived in the shadow of Jan Sniadecki’s personality and to the importance of the Szubrawcy ideology, especially in the early and last periods of his life. The Jašiūnai document collection housed in the Manuscripts Department of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences shows that the latter circumstance was fully understood by Tadeusz vel Tadeusz Stanisław Wróblewski (1858–1925) and his peers. From here stems another “archival”
conclusion regarding the uniqueness of the Wroblewski Library in our cultural and
historical geography. The circumstances surrounding the transferral of the document collection from Jašiūnai remain unclear to this day, however it is very likely that Baliński’s will and testament was not taken into consideration. This shows that the owner of Jašiūnai did not have a Continuator for his work, and this can be seen in the ad te ipsum fragility of the collection.
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