2023 marked some special anniversaries and other events important for the development of Lithuanian culture. This year we commemorated the 700th anniversary of the founding of Vilnius, the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, the 350th anniversary of the Battle of Khotyn, and the 150th birth anniversary of Felicija Bortkevičienė. The staff of the Wroblewski Library contributed to the celebration with new research, translations, exhibitions and other significant works. The 700th birthday of Vilnius was commemorated with a new translation of Gediminas’ letters by Dr. Sigitas Narbutas, and by an overview of Ruthenian documents of the Grand Dukes Alexander Jagiellon and Sigismund the Old made by Dr. Andrius Jurkevičius.

This volume of the Proceedings of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences also contributes to the commemoration of this year’s anniversaries. In a new work by Dr. Narbutas entitled “350 Years of the Heroic Poem The Power of the Lord’s Right Hand”, the translation of this Latin-language poem by Andrzej Hrynkiewicz published 350 years ago in Vilnius is accompanied by comprehensive textological and historical commentaries.

The new volume of the Proceedings also offers a study by the historian Rasa Sperskienė entitled “Documents from the Holdings of the Wroblewski Library Reveal the Significance of Political Activity of Lithuanian Organizations and Parties in Russia (1917–1918)”. Based on numerous historical documents of Lithuanian organizations and parties in Russia in 1917–1918 kept in the Manuscripts and Rare Books departments of the Library, as well as on scholarly studies and published sources, the researcher sheds light onto the multifaceted activities of Lithuanian organizations in their pursuit of the independence of Lithuania.

Drawing on the provenance card catalogue of the Rare Books Department, the Library’s electronic catalogue and the archival catalogue of old publications compiled by Vladas Drėma in 1943 and kept in the Manuscripts Department, Dr. Daiva Narbutienė, in her article “The Heritage of Old Books in the Ivan Lutskevich Belarusian Museum”, discusses the 15th–18th century books from this museum kept in the holdings of the Rare Books Department of the Wroblewski Library. The article is accompanired by a list of the identified publications.

This volume of the Proceedings also contains a scholarly publication of a Polish-language source, “Registers and Contracts of the Vilnius Basilian Monastery Printing House, 1774–1818”. This document is held by the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv. Its transcript with an introduction in Lithuanian and English was prepared by Irena Katilienė ir Dr. Inna Kazhuro of the Vilnius University Library.

Last year was marked by yet another beautiful anniversary – Otto von Mauderode (1852–1909), one of the foremost printers of 19th-century Lithuanian books, was born one hundred and seventy years ago. The Library held an exhibition from May 30 to June 30 to honour this occasion. The organizers, Dr. Alma Braziūnienė and Dr. Kotryna Rekašiūtė, vividly discuss the exhibited publications in the section “From the Library’s collections”.

In the section “Treasury of Bibliopolis”, Dr. Braziūnienė presents originals of the panoramic plan of Vilnius, Vilna Litvaniae metropolis, printed in the Braun-Hogenberg atlases in 1582–1623 and now kept in the holdings of the Wroblewski Library. For the first time in historiography, she discusses later derivatives of the plan. This city image will certainly be widely used in future exhibitions at Bibliopolis, the Museum of Lithuanian Book and Scholarly Thought.

The section named “The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 2022” 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 2022 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 2022 collected by Vaida Juodėnienė.

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

Daiva Narbutienė
December 2023