Lithuanian Old Personal Library Research: Status Quo

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 33-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alma Braziūnienė

The article analyzes the state of research on the old historical Lithuanian personal libraries, including the means of inquiry and sources. The author also analyzes the similarities between personal library research and institutional library research.It was found that book ownership marks are the main and most widely applicable personal library research source. This resource is used productively after Lithuanian scientific libraries have accelerated the scientific cataloging of the old books and started recording the provenance of each item (such catalogs include catalogs of the Elsevier, the Aldine, paleotypes, Bibliotheca Sapiehana by Vilnius University Library, Lituanica catalog by the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and the catalog of the 15th and 16th century books in Kaunas libraries by Kaunas County Public Library). The main and most widely applied Lithuanian historical personal library method is the provenance method, although good results are obtained using the hybrid method. The author concludes that most publications on old personal historic Lithuanian libraries limit their subjects to the personal libraries of nobility, state and religious actors (till the 19th Century) and the 19th century Lithuanian intellectuals. Historic personal libraries of lower-class individuals warrant more research (one example is Zigmantas Kiaupa’s publication about the book collections of ordinary old Kaunas’ citizens, published in 1985).

Nuncius ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrice Bret

Abstract This study examines the science and technology prize system of the Académie des Sciences through a first survey of the prizes granted over the period extending from the 1720s to the end of the 19th century. No reward policy was envisaged by the Royal Academy of Sciences in the Réglement (statute) promulgated by King Louis XIV in 1699. Prizes were proposed later, first by private donors and then by the state, and awarded in international contests setting out specific scientific or technical problems for savants, inventors and artists to solve. Using cash prizes, under the Ancien Régime the Academy effectively directed and funded research for specific purposes set by donors. By providing it with significant extra funding, the donor-sponsored prizes progressively gave the Academy relative autonomy from the political power of the state. In the 19th century, with the growing awareness of the importance of scientific research, the main question became whether to use the prizes to reward past achievements or to incentivize future research, and the scale and nature of the prizes changed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 277-328
Author(s):  
Reda Griškaitė

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.


2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 209-223
Author(s):  
Galina Miškinienė

Institute of the Lithuanian Language At the beginning of the 19th century, the financial possibility to establish a department of Eastern languages at one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe, Vilnius University, appeared. Turkish was among the Eastern languages that were expected to be taught. The intensive preparation of lecturers was started. Unfortunately, the ambitious plans were destined to never become reality; in 1832 the university was closed. Nevertheless, over the following two centuries the Turkic direction did not disappear; in one form or another it surfaced and retained its vitality. There was a sympathetic environment: Tartars and Karaims—both Turkic ethnic groups—began settling in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th century. Vilnius University was the cradle of many famous Orientalists who maintained Turkic research by their activities. In such a way, two main research subjects appeared: Kitabistik and the Karaim language. In this article, the origin problems, development and prospects of Turkic research will be examined.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (12-3) ◽  
pp. 143-152
Author(s):  
Tikhon Sergeyev ◽  
Vitaly Orlov ◽  
Valery Andreev

The article shows the contribution of two representatives of multinational Russia of the 19th century to the study of the ethnic culture of the Mongols: the first corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences from the Chuvash, the founder of Sinology, an outstanding scientist-monk N. Ya. Bichurin (Fr. Iakinfa) (1777-1853) and the first Buryat scientist, the Buryat “Lomonosov”, Dorzhi Banzarov (1822-1855). Coming from the lower classes of the people, they became prominent representatives of the Russian democratic intelligentsia of the 19th century.


Author(s):  
Tatiana Feklova

The history of the Russian Magneto-Meteorological Observatory (RMMO) in Beijing has not been extensively researched. Sources for this information are Russian (the Russian State Historical Archive, Saint Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences, Russian National Library) and Chinese (the First Historical Archive of Beijing, the Library of the Shanghai Zikavey Observatory) archives. These archival materials can be scientifically and methodologically analyzed. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Russian Orthodox Mission (ROM) was founded in the territory of Beijing. Existing until 1955, the ROM performed an important role in the development of Russian–Chinese relations. Russian scientists could only work in Beijing through the ROM due to China’s policy of fierce self-isolation. The ROM became the center of Chinese academic studies and the first training school for Russian sinologists. From its very beginning, it was considered not only a church or diplomatic mission but a research center in close cooperation with the Russian Academy of Sciences. In this context, the RMMO made important weather investigations in China and the Far East in the 19th century. The RMMO, as well as its branch stations in China and Mongolia, part of a scientific network, represented an important link between Europe and Asia and was probably the largest geographical scientific network in the world at that time.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lindberg

AbstractThis article introduces the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the old Stockholm Observatory. It focuses on the Swedish astronomers Jöns Svanberg and Nils H. Selander, and on their work with the Struve Geodetic Arc. The particular relations to the Tartu Observatory through Oskar Backlund and the contemporary Swedish astronomers in Stockholm are traced.


Menotyra ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rimantas Gučas

For Lithuania, the 19th century was marked by the symbol of the Russian Empire – Lithuania became a province of a foreign empire. Farming suffered a severe general downturn. As the Church’s powers began to be restricted, there was almost no opportunity for new significant instruments to emerge. The monasteries, which until then had been the initiators of the best organ building, were closed. Eastern Catholic (Unitarian) churches, which also had organs in Lithuania, became part of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the organs were ordered to be liquidated. The Catholic Church itself, unlike evangelicals, also had little regard for music and especially for organ matters. From the beginning of the 15th century, the development of Lithuanian organ culture was closely associated with Königsberg. Once the import customs were imposed, significant contacts which had taken place almost disappeared. The industrial revolution in Lithuania was delayed, and for half a century small artisan workshops still prevailed. Almost exclusively small, single-manual organs without pedals or positives were built. A large three-manual organ at Vilnius University St John’s Church was rather an exception. It was built by the Tiedemanns. This family, which originated in East Prussia, worked in the Baltic States throughout the first half of the 19th century. Only in the middle of the century did the new European organ building trend, the so-called organ romanticism, reach Lithuania. A particularly important role in this period was played by the experience of organ building of the neighbouring Curonia. Very few impressive examples were created, and in this respect Lithuania is hardly able to compete with the major countries of Central Europe. Lithuania is characterized by the fact that in the 19th century local masters and companies ( J. Rudavičius, M. Masalskis, F. Ostromensky), as well as masters from neighbouring Curonia (Herrmann, Weissenborn) and Poland (Blomberg) worked there. In western Lithuania, then part of Prussia, Terletzki was active. Meanwhile, large factories (Walcker, Rieger) reached Lithuania only in the first half of the twentieth century and only in a few instances. At that time, more work started to be focusing on the construction of two-manual with pedal instruments. At the end of the century, J. Rudavicius built some three-manual organs. His 63-stop organ built in 1896 for a long time was the largest in Lithuania. Although the 19th century Lithuanian organs are relatively modest compared to other countries, they have the value that is only growing in the context of present-day Europe, since the “progressive ideology” of more economically powerful European countries affected the art of organ building and few small romantic instruments are left.


2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (6) ◽  
pp. 51-76
Author(s):  
Markus Schiegg ◽  
Sabrina Freund

Lexis and semantics are under-researched fields both in contemporary and historical sociolinguistics. This paper focuses on intra-speaker variation in texts written by unroutined writers of the 19th century and examines different types of variation in the areas of lexis and semantics. Our data are taken from a new corpus of historical patients’ documents (see http://copadocs.de), which is currently being compiled as part of our research project “Flexible Writers in Language History”. In order to analyse lexical-semantic variation, we combine a number of different methods. An onomasiological approach is used to explore one writer’s linguistic repertoire and use of terms for women, while a structural approach allows us to compare functionally equivalent structures, such as routine formulae and expressions of a writer’s origo (e.g. I, here, now). Finally, we examine the use of emotional lexis in texts by writers diagnosed with melancholia, which is found to be more frequent as compared to a control group. Our findings provide evidence for considerable intra-speaker variation in lower-class writing. In addition, the emphasis on lexis is shown to have particular value for the investigation of patients’ texts, as this approach provides insights into the stylistic repertoires of historical writers which would otherwise remain hidden.


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