scholarly journals A Vilnius Transcript of the Health Garden: A Codicological Study

Knygotyra ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 87-170
Author(s):  
Rima Cicėnienė

This article is devoted to the history of cultural relations between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Moscovian Rus’ as well as the artifacts that testify to it. The object of the research is a Vilnius transcript of the Health Garden (a translation of Gart der Gesundheit (1492) into Russian) kept in the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (LMAVB RS F22–25). The aim of the article is to present a revised codicological description of the object, identifying the features of the Vilnius transcript and its links with the culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This aim is achieved by using codicological, comparative and textual methods, compiling a detailed codicological description of the copy, analyzing the architecture and internal structures of the code, and identifying differences or similarities between the Vilnius, Flor, Uvarov, and Shelonin copies of the Health Garden. Based on the gathered data, the circumstances of compiling the code are clarified. The study identified the following features of the Code. The large-scale codex, created in Moscow between the 17th and 18th centuries, is not a homogeneous object. It consists of two different editions: the index is closer to the Uvarov transcript and the main text to the Kharkov / Flor transcript. The second feature is careful preparation of the transcript. The codex was drafted as an exemplary edition of an old manuscript and is richly illustrated. Colored pigments were used for decoration, leaving traces of gilding. The edges of the Codex block were painted and decorated in ornamental prints. This allows us to consider the high social status of the client of the code. The third feature is the completeness of the text of the Vilnius copy. It consists of the most comprehensive block of indexes; the main text has been supplemented with new objects, enriched with new images; the text contains as many as 237 names of medicinal substances and 38 minerals in Russian. The remarks and additions contained in the previous transcripts became an integral part of the texts of the Vilnius transcript. The identified features, overlapping formal features, and organization scheme of the text, as well as the same manner of illustration, gave reason to search for a place where all the mentioned copies – Flor, Uvarov, Shelonin – as well as other old prints or their translations could have been seen by the creators of the Vilnius transcript. It is believed that such a place could have been the The Apothecary Chancery. Some Polonisms are found in the text; the works of authors from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were used in the Rus’ at that time and thus encourage a closer look at the translations and the search for citizens from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who could have participated in the works. The research clarifies the available knowledge about the transcript kept in Vilnius. The information gathered is expected to help book historians clarify the origin of the codex, its production environment, and its place in the Gart der Gesundheit’s line of translations and transcripts; this paper will make it possible to identify other stored fragments. The article is supplemented with a comparative table of the structure and content of the Vilnius transcript of the Health Garden and a decor picture of the code block.

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (29) ◽  
pp. 115-128
Author(s):  
Agata Barzycka-Paździor

The aim of the article is to present a concept of the Polish Biographical Dictionary (Polski Słownik Biograficzny, PSB), which has been published in Krakow since 1935 as a multi-volume publication of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU), and realised by the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the PAN. Over 28,000 biographies of people associated with Poland (and with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Commonwealth of Both Nations, and their fiefs), who lived or operated in the country and abroad from the time of legendary Duke Popiel (9th century) to 2000, have been published in 52 volumes so far. The concept of the PSB is presented in the historiographic context as well as the context of contemporary problems and challenges that the PSB is facing.


Author(s):  
Svitlana Blashchuk ◽  

The history of the law in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania has always attracted the attention of researchers. The productive period in its study was the activity of the Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law of All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (hereafter AUAS). The theoretical achievements of the commission are significant. Nowadays some of its members’ works have been republished with modern commentaries, and separate studies have been devoted to them. But there are such members whose works do not have any historiographical researches despite their great scientific achievements. One of them is the historian Stefan (Stepan) Hnatovych Borysenok (May 17, 1891 – November 14, 1937). Borysenok was a talented and extraordinary researcher. This article presents his biographical data as well as the theoretical achievements of the scientist are analyzed. The scientific achievements of the researcher in the field of law history are not very large. They are about 10 works (thorough scientific articles) and several reviews. They were significant for that time. However a few decades later after writing of these articles modern researchers point to a significant number of inaccuracies and errors in his works. S. Borysenok’s works were highly appreciated by his contemporaries and scientific mentors M. Vasylenko and O. Malynovsky. First of all they were impressed by the fact that he always tried to turn to primary sources and was critical to the works of his predecessors. His works show an excellent knowledge of the historiography of a particular research problem. In addition S. Borysenok being a lawyer by education was able to analyze in more details the certain problems that were not always clear to historians. The issues related to the First Lithuanian Statute and the history of the Bar in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been researched by S. Borysenok since the middle of 1920s. In particular the main subject of his research in Moscow archives was "History of the Bar in Ukraine in the 16th–18th Centuries. The special articles of the researcher are interesting and original. Among them are such articles as "Formation of a Professional Bar in the Lithuanian-Ruthenian State", "Lawyer's Fee in the Lithuanian Principality in the 16th–17th Centuries" (The latter was published in the 7th issue of the "Proceedings of the Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law". But that issue was destroyed). One of the greatest work by S. Borysenok concerns the history of the Bar formation in the first half of the 16th century. Also in the late 1920's the researcher had been preparing for publication a thorough work with focus on the Lithuanian Statute (history of drafting the code, sources, lists). Correspondence with Lithuanian researcher A. Janulaitis (the ancestor of the Lithuanian Statutes historiography) indicates that the manuscript of this work (or a significant part of it) probably existed. At the same time the facts of cooperation with Lithuanian historians are recorded and they give us the opportunity to hope that the lost achievements of the researcher can still be found and introduced into scientific circulation. And we are convinced that they will be the impetus for the new scientific research and will cause a significant number of scientific discussions. In the early 1930's S. Borysenok was an employee at the library. He actively worked at the acquisition of the library fund with foreign professional publications. He tried to establish and systematize international exchange. On September 23, 1937 S. Borysenok was arrested on trumped up charges of alleged involvement in an "anti-Soviet nationalist organization". On October 25 of the same year he was sentenced to death via shooting (executed on November, 14).


2021 ◽  
pp. 18-51
Author(s):  
Veronika Girininkaitė

In this article it is aimed to tell about a person, which was unduly forgotten in the history of the Vilnius University, though among his other activities, he did a lot to support and help the astronomers, coming to Paris and London from Vilnius. A former jesuit, talented preacher, professor of Rhetorics and other disciplines in Vilnius academy, Remigian Korwin Kossakowski (1730–1780) wrote a lot of letters to Vilnius (and perhaps to Warsaw too), from 1774 on, while working in Paris as the representative of the National Comission of Education of the Commonwealth of Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The letters which are kept in Vilnius university library, mainly addressed to the astronomers Marcin Poczobut and Andrzej Strzecki (1737–1797) are mainly connected with the scientific journey of Strzecki in 1778 to Paris and London and the circumstances of election of Poczobut as a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris. Letters are filled with digressions, reminding of gawenda literary genre, providing the researcher with data on the details of everyday life in the second half of XVIII century, political and ideological views of the addressee, his nostalgy for the Grand Duchy and Poland and his exceptional gift of expressing his feelings. The style of these letters show us that the human who wrote them was well educated, highly critical, curious and well-spoken, and the contents testify the not so well known side of the history of science relations between Vilnius, Warsaw and Paris.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 223-231
Author(s):  
Henryk Rutkowski

Abstract The author begins with presentation of a programme of creating the detailed cartographic picture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century, proposed by Stanisław Smolka from the Jagiellonian University at the first congress of Polish historians in Cracow in 1880. This initiative was partially realised in the atlas of Ruthenian lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the turn of the 16th and 17th century created by Aleksander Jabłonowski and printed in 1904 in Vienna. When Poland regained its independence, it became possible to organize further works. As their results two maps were designed, prepared and issued in the interwar period: the general map of the sixteenth-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania created by Jan Jakubowski, published in 1927 and 1928, and the map of Cracow Voivodship of the Four-Year Sejm period (1788–1792) elaborated by Karol Buczek with cooperation of several other persons and published in 1930 in Cracow. The main topic of this article is a series of maps with commentaries prepared collectively in the Institute of History of Polish Academy of Sciences, entitled Atlas historyczny Polski. Mapy szczegółowe szesnastego wieku (Historical Atlas of Poland. Detailed maps of the 16th century) which includes Polish lands of the Crown. From the planned eight volumes with maps of individual voivodships or their groups, six were published successively in the years 1966–2018 and the last two are prepared for publishing in 2020. The author presents subject of the series and particularly contents of the main maps at the scale of 1:250,000. This most detailed geographical and historical analysis of a large part of old Poland depicts the area in the 16th century, but it can also facilitate the process of gaining deeper knowledge about the history of these lands in the earlier and later centuries.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 329-427
Author(s):  
Rafał Witkowski

The studies on book culture and the functioning of various libraries have been present in academic circle for many decades. For obvious reasons the interest in books among the illustrious members of Radziwiłł magnate family as well as their scope of activity as the patrons of culture have been analyzed by historians. In the context, the history of the famous Radziwiłł library in Nesvizh can be considered as a separate research topic. This magnificent collection was confiscated after the first partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772) by order of Empress Catherine the Great. Some 15.000 volumes were transported to Saint Petersburg and offered to the Russian Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts (later Russian Academy of Sciences).Nicolas Radziwiłł the Black (1515–1565) is considered to be the founder of the Nesvizh library; however, its full development can be dated back to the time of Nicholas Christopher Radziwiłł “the Orphan” (1549–1616), who rebuilt the ducal palace and organized a library in one of the specially adopted rooms. The Nesvizh collection has been enriched by numerous donations, including that of cardinal and bishop of Vilnius George Radziwiłł (1556–1600), Sigismund Charles Radziwiłł (1591–1642), and many other members ofthe family.The presented catalogue was compiled under the request of Duke Alexander Louis Radziwiłł. This magnate, born in 1594 as a son of Nicolas Christopher Radziwiłł and Elisabeth Eufemia née Wiśniowiecka, received a most privileged education. In 1610 he began his studies in Germany then traveled throughout Germany, France and Italy. He returned to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by the end of 1620, but in 1624 he left for Italy again, this time in the company of Prince Vladislas Vasa. In summer 1625 he again returned to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but soon was totally immersed in political life. Thanks to family connections he advanced his career very fast, becoming in the court marshal of Lithuania in 1635, and grand marshal of Lithuania only two years later. In December 1652 he went to Italy again and died in Bologna March 30, 1654. The manuscript catalogue of the library of Alexander Louis Radziwiłł is currently preserved in the Kórnicka Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Ms BK 1320). It contains of two parts. The first of them (f. 1–25r), compiled according to subjects, was written down in April 1651, then second one (f. 26r–46v), compiled alphabetically – in May and June this year. The catalogues are not identical. The first part, divided into classes, is more comprehensive than the second one (alphabetical). The catalogue was composed by John Hanowicz, mayor of Nesvezh. The manuscript has been marked with the ex-libris of the Radziwiłł library (Ex Bibliotheca Radivilliana Ducali Nesvisiensi) and pressmark (Loc. X, No 17). Hanowicz did not state usually the information about the place and year of publication, which makes the precise identification of the books very difficult. Therefore, one can only predict the exact number of the books (and volumes) preserved in the Nesvezh library at that time. It also happened that Hanowicz stated a title of this same book in both versions: once in the original Latin version and then in (abbreviated) Polish form. Among items included the catalogue one can also find manuscripts, maps, drawings and landed estate documents. Most the books were bound with white or red leather, less frequently with green, cherish, orange or red colored leather, and seldom with morocco leather or paper. The bibliographical descriptions provided in the footnotes should be considered only as suggestions, for only direct analysis of a given book (in visu) allows one to identify and link a book with the Radziwiłł Library. Some of the most precious books were kept in the castle treasury. The Nesvizh collections included also musical pieces, e.g. the libretto (?) of the first opera – Il ratto di Helena – performed on September 4th, 1636, in the theater of the lower ducal castle in Vilnius. The music of the famous opera was composed by an anonymous author, but the libretto was produced by Virgilio Puccitelli.The significance of the magnate families (e.g. that of the Radziwiłłs or the Sapiehas) as promoters and patrons of fine arts and literature was enormous and hard to over-estimate in the history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A further and detailed study on the content of the Nesvizh library of Duke Alexander Louis Radziwiłł in 1651 gives one the opportunity to present in full and broad contexts a truly European library collection of Baroque culture in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.


1996 ◽  
pp. 4-15
Author(s):  
S. Golovaschenko ◽  
Petro Kosuha

The report is based on the first results of the study "The History of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Ukraine", carried out in 1994-1996 by the joint efforts of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Odessa Theological Seminary of Evangelical Christian Baptists. A large-scale description and research of archival sources on the history of evangelical movements in our country gave the first experience of fruitful cooperation between secular and church researchers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 219-236
Author(s):  
Andrey Yu. Dvornichenko

The abundant Russian historiography of the medieval history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuanian-Russian State) has become in the last decades the centre of the discussions and is often subject to groundless criticism. This historiography was not very lucky in the Soviet period of the 20th century either, as it was severely criticized from the Marxist-Leninist position. When discussing Russian historiography the author of this article is consciously committed to the Russian positions. There are no reasons to consider this historiography branch either Byelorussian or Ukrainian one, as that was really Russian historiography, - the phenomenon that formed under the favorable specific conditions of Russian Empire before the beginning of the 20th century. The said phenomenon can be studied in different ways: according to the existing then main trends and schools or according to their affiliation with specific universities of Russian Empire. But according to the author of this article the best way to study the issue is in accordance with the main concepts of history. And then the pre-revolutionary historiography appears as an integral scientific paradigm that turns out to be the most divaricate branch of the Lithuanian studies of the time. It created, in its turn, the most vivid and objective historical picture that can still serve as the basis for the studies of Lithuanian-Russian state.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1006-1014
Author(s):  
Oksana Pylypchuk

The article is devoted to the history of formation and development of Ukrainian constitutionalism. It is shown that during the times of Kievan Rus and the Galicia-Volyn principality monarchical states with elements of a democratic state and political regime were formed on Ukrainian lands. It is highlighted that the formation of the Ukrainian nation and its path to its own state was carried out under the conditions of aristocratic democracy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is emphasized that the Ukrainian people in the XV century became part of a large European society, which became the basis for the emergence of constitutional ideas in the Ukrainian ethnic lands, the creation of the Cossacks and the revival of their own Ukrainian state in the former Kievan Rus. It is noted that the results of the development of Ukrainian constitutionalism in the eighteenth century was presented in the Constitution of Hetman P. Orlyk in 1710, which became one of the most democratic constitutions in Europe at that time. Fecha de envío / Submission date: 25/02/2021 Fecha de aceptación / Acceptance date: 19/04/2021


Artifex Novus ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Anna Sylwia Czyż

ABSTRAKT Sprowadzone do Wilna między 1616 a 1618 r. benedyktynki utworzyły niewielką i skromnie uposażoną wspólnotę. Ich sytuacja zmieniła się w 1692 r., kiedy to dzięki bogatym zapisom Feliksa Jana Paca mogły wystawić murowany kościół konsekrowany w 1703 r. Hojność podkomorzego litewskiego nie była przypadkowa, bowiem do wileńskich benedyktynek wstąpiły jego córki Sybilla i Anna, jedyne potomstwo jakie po sobiepozostawił. Z nich szczególne znaczenie dla dziejów klasztoru miała Sybilla (Magdalena) Pacówna, która w 1704 r. została wybrana ksienią. Nie tylko odnowiła ona życie wspólnoty, ale stała się również jedną z najważniejszych postaci ówczesnego Wilna. Po pożarze w 1737 r. Sybilla Pacówna energicznie przystąpiła do odbudowy klasztoru i kościoła, którą kończyła już jej następczyni Joanna Rejtanówna. Wzniesioną wówczas według projektu Jana Krzysztofa Glaubitza fasadę ozdobiono stiukowo-metalową dekoracją o indywidualnie zaplanowanym programie ideowym odwołującym się i do tradycji zakonnej i rodowej – pacowskiej. W fasadzie wyeksponowano ideały związane z życiem benedyktyńskim sytuując je wśród aluzji o konieczności walki na płaszczyźnie ducha i ciała, włączając w militarną symbolikę także konieczność walki z wrogami Kościoła i ojczyzny oraz charakterystyczną dla duchowości benedyktyńskiej pobożność związaną z krzyżem w typie karawaka oraz zOpatrznością Bożą. Jednocześnie przypominano o bogactwie powołań w klasztorze benedyktynek wileńskich przyrównując mniszki do lilii. Porównanie to dzięki obecności w fasadzie herbu Gozdawa (podwójna lilia) oraz powszechnego w XVII i XVIII w. zwyczaju określania Paców „Liliatami” można było odnosić także do ich rodu, w tym do zasłużonej dla klasztoru ksieni Sybilli. Tak mocne wyeksponowanie fundatorów było nie tylko chęciąupamiętnia darczyńców, ale wraz z całym architektonicznym i plastycznym wystrojem świątyni wiązało się z koniecznością stworzenia przeciwwagi dla nowego i prężnie rozwijającego się pod patronatem elity litewskiej klasztoru Wwizytek w Wilnie. Przy tym charakter dekoracji fasady kościoła pw. św. Katarzyny wpisuje się w inne fundacje Paców: kościół pw. św. Teresy i kościół pw. śś. Piotra i Pawła będąc ostatnią ważną inicjatywą artystyczną rodu w stolicy Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. SUMMARY The Benedictines, who had been brought to Vilnius between 1616 and 1618, formed a small and modest community. Thanks to the generous legacy of Feliks Jan Pac, in 1692 their situation changed as they could erect a brick church, which was then consecrated in 1703. The generosity of the Lithuanian chamberlain was not a coincidence; his two daughters, Sybilla and Anna, the only offspring he left, had joined the Benedictine Sisters in Vilnius. Sybilla (Magdalena) Pac, who became an abbess in 1704, was particularly important for the history of the monastery. Not only did she renew the community life, but she also became one of the most important personalities of the then Vilnius. After the fire in 1737 Sybilla Pac vigorously started rebuilding the monastery and the church, which was completed by her successor, Joanna Rejtan. The facade which was then erected after Johann Christoph Glaubitz’s design was adorned with stucco and metal decorations with a perfectly devised ideological programme which referred to the tradition of the order and to the one of the Pac family. The facade presented ideals connected with the Benedictine life, which placed them among the hints of having to fight at the level of spirit and body, incorporating among the military symbols also the need to fight the enemies of the Church and the state, and the typical for the Benedictine spirituality piety connected with the Caravaca cross and the Divine Providence. At the same time, it reminded of the Benedictine vocations comparing nuns to lilies. This comparison, due to the presence of the Gozdawa coat-of-arms (double lilie) and the common nickname of the Pac family in the 17th and 18th cc. “the Liliats”, could also apply to their lineage, including the abbess Sybilla and her services to the monastery. Exposing founders in such an emphatic way was not only the will to immortalise them, but was also, together with the entire architectural and artistic decor of the church, connected with the need to counterbalance the new and dynamicallydeveloping Visitation Monastery in Vilnius. At the same time, the nature of the facade decoration of the Church of St. Catherine is in line with other foundations of the Pac family: St Theresa’s Church and the St Peter and St Paul Church, and was the last significant artistic initiative of the family in thecapital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania


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