POLITICAL AND LEGAL THOUGHTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF ANCIENT BELARUS

The article examines the relationship between traditional culture and the genesis of the state and legal system. The author describes myths about the origin of power, sources of law and order, which were widespread among the inhabitants of ancient Belarus, their influence on the state and legal reality of the East Slavic principalities and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Language Contact Between Lithuanian and Polish in the Historical Anthroponymy of Kėdainiai Town of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Language Contact Between Lithuanian and Polish in the Historical Anthroponymy of Kėdainiai Town of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth CenturiesThis article presents Lithuanian naming trends specific to residents of Kėdainiai in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, underlining characteristic cases of Polonisation of their personal names and the most significant factors that affected the recording of anthroponyms in town books. Historical records from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (24 Kėdainiai register books from 1623–1799) were used to extract 505 cases of names of Kėdainiai residents. For comparison, the study also considers examples from the 1752–1799 register of christenings kept by St George’s Church of Kėdainiai Parish. The sources under consideration mostly relied on the binary nomination model (using a name and a surname or a personal name that performed the function of the latter), where the first component was a Christian name written in Polish or Latin. In seventeenth-century records, surnames were Polonised: obvious cases of phonetic alterations were noted, some surnames had no endings, some Lithuanian patronymic and diminutive suffixes were replaced with Slavic suffixes, and Slavic patronymic suffixes -evič, -ovič were added to names without suffixes. However, the Slavicisation of anthroponyms particular to Kėdainiai residents in the seventeenth century was not very intense due to extralinguistic and historical circumstances. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the town of Kėdainiai was a Reformist centre of Lithuanianness, and the Lithuanian language was used in the public life of the town. This element of Lithuanianness can also be noticed in the analysed historical sources. Anthroponyms were mostly Polonised in Kėdainiai register books from the eighteenth century. Slavic patronymic suffixes -evič, -ovič were predominant in this period. Litewsko-polskie kontakty językowe w historycznej antroponimii siedemnasto- i osiemnastowiecznych KiejdanNiniejszy artykuł omawia litewskie tendencje antroponimiczne charakterystyczne dla mieszkańców Kiejdan w XVII i XVIII wieku, podkreślając charakterystyczne przypadki polonizacji oraz najistotniejsze czynniki, które wpłynęły na zapis antroponimów w księgach miejskich. Z siedemnasto- i osiemnastowiecznych zapisów (24 księgi miejskie z lat 1623–1799) wyekstrahowano 505 przypadków nazwisk mieszkańców Kiejdan. Dla porównania, w opracowaniu uwzględniono również przykłady z księgi chrztów z lat 1752–1799, prowadzonej przez kościół parafialny św. Jerzego w Kiejdanach. W omawianych zapisach źródłowych stosowano głównie antroponimy o modelu dwuczłonowym (użycie imienia i nazwiska lub imienia, które pełniło funkcję nazwiska), gdzie pierwszym elementem było imię chrzestne zapisywane po polsku lub po łacinie. W zapisach siedemnastowiecznych nazwiska polonizowano: odnotowano oczywiste przypadki zmian fonetycznych, niektóre nazwiska nie miały końcówek, niektóre litewskie przyrostki patronimiczne i deminutywne zastępowano przyrostkami słowiańskimi, słowiańskie przyrostki patronimiczne -ewicz, -owicz dodawano do nazwisk, które nie miały przyrostków. Mimo że slawizacja antroponimów była charakterystyczna dla Kiejdan w XVII wieku, nie była jednak szczególnie intensywna ze względu na uwarunkowania pozajęzykowe i historyczne. Kiejdany były ośrodkiem reformacji i litewskości, który posługiwał się językiem litewskim w życiu publicznym miasta. Ten element litewskości można również dostrzec w analizowanych źródłach historycznych. W księgach kiejdańskich z XVIII wieku antroponimy występują przeważnie w formach spolszczonych. W tym okresie dominowały słowiańskie przyrostki patronimiczne -ewicz, -owicz.

The Last Citizen of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Editor Ludwik Abramowicz (1879–1939) and the Idea of "Krajowość"

The Last Citizen of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Editor Ludwik Abramowicz (1879–1939) and the Idea of KrajowośćLudwik Abramowicz was one of the main ideologists of the idea of krajowość in its liberal-democratic version. He defended its principles even in the interwar period, when Poland was dominated by the policy of assimilation of national minorities and relations with Lithuania had the character of a cold war. Thanks to Abramowicz, Przegląd Wileński [Vilnius Review] (1921–1938) became the last bastion of the idea of krajowość, actively popularising it in the public life of the Vilnius Region. Abramowicz unwaveringly defended the idea of the political independence of the Belarusian-Lithuanian Lands and the decision of its future by the representatives of all indigenous nations. Abramowicz’s life and work, his publications in Przegląd Wileński prove that against all political and national-cultural realities, the idea of krajowość as an idea of harmonious coexistence of the nations of the historical Lithuania was popular and found new supporters.Ostatni obywatel Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. Wprowadzenie do biografii redaktora Ludwika Abramowicza (1879–1939)Publicysta i redaktor Ludwik Abramowicz był jednym z głównych ideologów idei krajowej w jej liberalno-demokratycznej wersji. Bronił zasad krajowości nawet w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym, kiedy w Polsce dominowała polityka asymilacji mniejszości narodowych, a stosunki z Litwą miały charakter zimnej wojny. Dzięki Abramowiczowi „Przegląd Wileński” (1921–1938) stał się ostatnim bastionem idei krajowej, czynnie popularyzując ją w życiu publicznym Wileńszczyzny. Abramowicz konsekwentnie bronił idei politycznej niezależności Kraju Białorusko-Litewskiego i decydowania o jego losie przez przedstawicieli wszystkich rdzennych narodów. Życie i twórczość Abramowicza, publikacje w „Przeglądzie Wileńskim” świadczą, że wbrew wszelkim realiom politycznym i narodowo-kulturowym idea krajowa jako idea harmonijnego współistnienia narodów historycznej Litwy cieszyła się popularnością i znajdowała nowych zwolenników.

Aspects of the Epigraphic Culture of Cannon Inscriptions during the Reign of Sigismund Augustus

Any object marked with epigraphic writing becomes unique in the totality of the same objects and acquires the status of a monument. In the 16th century, cannons were also marked with inscriptions (texts and images): some were created for warfare, others – to commemorate a certain event. During the reign of Sigismund Augustus, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania created the necessary infrastructure for cannon casting, which allowed it to produce large numbers of cannons to prepare for its war with the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The article attempts to reconstruct inscriptions on cannons using original and published archival sources stored in memory institutions in foreign countries (Poland, Sweden). An appendix covering 67 cannon records made it possible to perceive the structure of such inscriptions. Meanwhile, with the help of the ego-documentary legacy of the last Jagiellonian ruler, it was possible to study the functionality of cannon recordings in the context of epigraphic culture, paying special attention to the stages of the record’s emergence. This has so far been little studied at all. The collected data allowed to reach the conclusion that it was the ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who directly influenced the form, names, and content of the inscriptions on cannons.

Manuscript Books: Collections of Political Life Materials from the Area of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Dating Back to the 17th and 18th Centuries in Libraries, Archives and Museums in Poland

The article discusses manuscript books – collections of public life materials created in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, now located in Poland. They were created mainly by nobles and by chancellery clerks and officials employed at magnates’ and state dignitaries’ courts as an expression of the interests of collectors or documentary and historiographical concerns, and sometimes also as support for public activity. They contained various materials related to conducting, documenting and recording public life. The present overview is based on an identification of copies and on the information contained in printed and online manuscript catalogues and inventories. The number of surviving manuscripts of that type can be hypothetically estimated at ca. 400–500 copies, with ca. 100 copies identified in Poland. Their largest collection is held in the Radvilos Archives, part of the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, with single copies scattered across different libraries and museums. The oldest ones date back to the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The greatest value should be attributed to several manuscripts originating from the Radvilos of Biržai community from the mid-17th century. Other valuable manuscripts include some made by common nobles, especially in the 17th century, as they often contain unique materials, unknown from elsewhere, as well as those created in the circles of the Sapiegos and Radvilos of Nyasvizh magnate families. Standing out among the latter are miscellanies created during the first three decades of the 18th century by Kazimierz Złotkowski, secretary of the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania Karolis Stanislovas Radvila. These books attest to the integration of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s nobility and magnates with other lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They largely contain materials relating to public life of the whole Commonwealth, while often including materials relating to local issues.

The Phenomenon of the 18th Century Institutional Printing House of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Case of the Franciscans

Many of the printing houses in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that operated during the 17th-18th centuries belonged to institutions the biggest part of which consisted of Catholic monk monasteries. Despite belonging to one group, the development path of each printing house and its contribution to book culture has unique features. Of the four institutional prin­ting houses operating in the 18th century in Vilnius, the printing house of the Franciscan Conventuals Monastery was the first to be closed and its operations terminated. The purpose of the article is to identify the following causes behind the issues and eventual closure of this printing house. Based on the expenses and income book of this printing house for the period 1752–1769 (it is preserved at the Department of Manuscripts of Vilnius University Library,) this paper examines various aspects of the Vilnius Franciscan Conventuals monastery printing house: funds, sources of equipment and paper, building location, relations with employees and hired craftsmen, orders, sources of income, profitability. In order to better understand the specificity of the institutional press, an effort was made to establish a link between the research outcome and the wider context by addressing the question of the impact of both the society of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Franciscan Order itself on the destiny of the printing house. In addition, the book of expenses and income reveals new biographical data about Vilnius engraver Franciszek Balcewicz.

Discovering the Book Worlds of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Case of Male Religious Orders

Pietrzkiewicz, Iwona. Kultura książki w zakonach męskich Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego XV–XVIII wieku. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Pedagogicznego, 2019. 447 s. ISBN 9788380843356.

A Vilnius Transcript of the Health Garden: A Codicological Study

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.

IN NOVUM RESTRICTION IN LITHUANIAN CIVIL PROCEDURE LAW

This article examines a relatively new institute of Lithuanian civil proceedings – legal restrictions on the late submission of evidence in both first instance and appellate courts. These restrictions were first established in the new Civil Procedure Code (CPC) which was adopted by Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania on 28 February 2002 (entered into force on 1 January 2003). Until then such restrictions in Lithuanian civil procedure law were not known from the time of famous Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Therefore, it seems natural that this innovation has paved the way for its real application in the courts for more than a decade. This article provides a consistent analysis of the case law (starting with the rulings of the Supreme Court of Lithuania in which the restrictions established in the law were practically denied, and up to the rulings of the last year, which already recognized the right of the courts in certain cases to refuse to accept evidence which was submitted too late). This article also reveals the aims of the CPC authors which were aimed at establishing the first instance court’s right to refuse to accept evidence which was submitted too late and system of limited appeal which establishes a general prohibition (with certain exceptions) to present evidence that was not examined in the court of first instance. One of the most important aims is the concentration of the proceedings, the prevention of abuse of procedural rights and the establishment of the first instance as the main judicial instance. The appeal procedure in the new CPC is already regarded not as a repetition or continuation of the proceedings at first instance, but as a review of the legality and validity of an existing, albeit unenforced, decision of the court of first instance. The author acknowledges that although it took a long time for the relevant provisions of the law to be actually applied in the case law, today their application is already noticeable in the daily work of courts. This leads to the conclusion that Lithuanian courts have adapted to the new CPC system and its philosophy.