We are delighted to present the eleventh volume of our serial scholarly publication published since 2004. Previously entitled “The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences”, it was renamed in 2022 by a resolution of the Library’s Research Council. The new title, “Proceedings of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences”, better corresponds to the purposes of the publication: to offer a selection of articles in book studies, librarianship, bibliography, history of culture, literature and art, research in restoration of documentary heritage, dissemination of research; and to publish monuments of written culture and scholarly sources.

This year, the Editorial Board was joined by prominent scholars, researchers of Lithuanian written heritage, cultural historians and specialists in ancient languages: Dr. Gita Drungilienė, Prof. Dr. Habil. Aliaksandr Grusha and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Habil. Ilya Lemeshkin. The Editorial Board sincerely thanks its former member, the Deputy Director of the National Library of Belarus, Dr. Aliaksandr Susha. It is owing to his efforts and the efforts of other Belarusian scholars, artists, and cultural activists, that Francysk Skaryna’s name was heard across the world in 2017–2020.

In 2022, the name of the first Lithuanian Publisher rang loud again in Vilnius and Prague, and this volume is thus dedicated to celebrating Francysk Skaryna. The first printing house in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was established five centuries ago. In 1522, Skaryna published the Little Traveller’s Book. To mark this occasion, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuanian declared 2022 to be, in Lithuania, the year of Francysk Skaryna. The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, along with other scholarly and cultural institutions, was active in celebrating this important anniversary.

The volume opens with an introductory text by the Library’s director, Dr. Sigitas Narbutas, previously read at a commemorative event held at the Vilnius City Hall on May 10, 2022. The introduction is also presented in English. In 2022, the Library, in a joint effort with the Department of Book, Media, and Publishing Studies of the Faculty of Communication at Vilnius University, run an international scholarly conference “Francysk Skaryna and the Renaissance Book Culture”, which took place on September 22–23, 2022 at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Rima Cicėnienė tells about this scholarly event in the section of this publication named “2022, the year of Francysk Skaryna”. Dr. Alma Braziūnienė’s review entitled “What Does the Portrait of Francysk Skaryna Tell Us?” is also published in this section, offering original insights into Ilya Lemeshkin’s monograph Pranciškaus Skorinos portretas (A Portrait of Francysk Skaryna) that came out in the Lithuanian language in this anniversary year. This study was translated from Russian by Irena Miškinienė, published by the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and the Prague Linguistic Circle, and printed by “Petro Ofsetas”. In the same section, Dr. Kotryna Rekašiūtė discusses the first International School dedicated to Skaryna held in Prague under the name of “Physician, Publisher, and Gardener. 500 Years since the Move of Skaryna’s Activities from Prague to Vilnius”. It was held by Charles University (Univerzita Karlova) together with partners: the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, the National Library of the Czech Republic, the Prague Linguistic Circle, the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University, and the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

This volume of the proceedings contains seven scholarly articles. In the first, entitled “Pater noster” in East Prussian Lithuanian Writings from Mažvydas to Vilentas”, the linguist Dr. Artūras Judžentis continues his studies of 16^th-century texts published in the previous (the ninth and the tenth) volumes of this serial. The classical linguist Rasa Marija Šileikienė, in her paper named “Representation of the Election of Henry de Valois as a Ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the French Poetry in Latin. Henrias by J. de La Gessée and the Issue of Authorship”, introduces a hitherto little-known and almost unstudied collection of French occasional poetry, Henrias, dating from the second half of the 16^th century and dedicated to the future king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In her study, the book-studies scholar Dr. Ina Kažuro looks at the main features of theses at old Vilnius University (1579–1773) and distinctive traits of their dissemination. The art researcher Dr. Neringa Markauskaitė, based on the 16^th–20^th-century documents from the Akmenynė estate held by the Wroblewski Library and the Lithuanian State Historical Archives, tells of the research into sources and iconography of the Church of St. Terese of the Holy Infant Jesus. Dr. Kotryna Rekašiūtė, in her article entitled “Books from the Personal Library of Hugo Scheu in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences” draws out attention to the copious and valuable library of publications in Lithuanian studies that had belonged to Hugo Scheu (1845–1937), the owner of Heydekrug (now Šilutė) manor, and that was scattered in the aftermath of World War II. Based on Tatar documentary heritage collections held by the Library, Eglė Paškevičiūtė-Kundrotienė, Senior Bibliographer at the Scholarly Information Department, discusses copious cultural heritage of the Tatar community, which is dispersed among various heritage institutions. Taking a look at documents kept in the holdings of the Manuscripts Department and the Rare Books Department, the historian Rasa Sperskienė examines the development of modern Lithuanian parliamentarism, encompassing the period from the emergence of this historical phenomenon in 1920 to this day.

In another section of this volume, “From the Libraryʼs collections”, a staff member of the Rare Books Department, Violeta Radvilienė, discusses 17^th-century books from the library of the Vilnius Evangelical Reformed Synod, which are held in the holdings of this department.

In the “Treasury of Bibliopolis” section, Dr. Alma Braziūnienė and Dr. Kotryna Rekašiūtė, employees of the Library’s Book Museum, present an interesting object of ego-documentary heritage – diaries of Emilia z Beniowskich Wróblewska (1830–1886), mother of the Wroblewski Library’s founder, Tadeusz Stanisław Wróblewski (1858–1925). Wróblewska wrote them for her children and for herself (ad se ipsam). The cultural historian Dr. Reda Griškaitė called these diaries an original “biography of feelings”.

The section entitled “The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 2021” contains a report of the Library’s activities prepared by Leokadija Kairelienė, Academic Secretary of the Library, as well as the list of publication by the Library’s staff members for 2021 compiled by the bibliographer Vaida Juodėnienė, the chronicle of the activities of the Library put together by Loreta Glebavičiūtė and bibliographic information on the coverage of the Library in the media in 2021 collected by Vaida Juodėnienė.

The “In memoriam” section offers a tribute to our greatly-missed colleague, Danutė Labanauskienė-Petkevičiūtė (1933–2022), who worked in a single workplace, the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, all her life.

“Instructions for authors” provide new requirements for bibliographic references prepared in accordance with recommendations offered by the Chicago Manual of Style.

We sincerely thank the authors of the texts published in this volume and the reviewers of the research articles for their valuable insights and useful advice.

We cordially invite all scholars from Lithuania and other countries who study documentary heritage, as well as history and present-day of memory institutions, to submit their contributions.

Daiva Narbutienė

December 2022