Here we present the thirteenth volume of a serial scholarly publication launched in 2004. It contains texts by staff members of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences – research articles, reviews, and other important information related to the activities of the Library.

This year marks both the 400th anniversary of the birth of Mykolas Kazimieras Pacas (1624–1682), the Grand Hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the 350th anniversary of the victory achieved by Pacas and Jan Sobieski (1629–696) against the Turks at Khotyn. This victorious battle, which took place on 11 November 1673, was commemorated by a professor of the Vilnius Jesuit Academy, Andrzej Hrynkiewicz (1647–1707), whose heroic poem The Might of the Lordʼs Right Hand saw the light of day less than two months later, on 14 January 1674. The Wroblewski Library commemorated this milestone by organising an exhibition and publishing a translation of the poem from Latin to Lithuanian. The thirteenth volume of the Proceedings of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences therefore begins with an introductory article by the translator, Dr. Sigitas Narbutas, which is entitled “The First of the Pacas’ Secrets” and shares insights into connections between The Might of the Lordʼs Right Hand and some other artistic and architectural monuments of the period. An English translation of the entire text is also provided.

This volume contains three scholarly articles. The article entitled “The Lithuanian Hymn by Abraomas Kulvietis” by the language historian Dr. Artūras Judžentis examines the peculiarities of the translation of the hymn by a 16th-century Lithuanian cultural luminary from German into Lithuanian. In her article on Lithuanian dissertations as a significant source of the history of science, Dr. Giedrė Miknienė, Head of the Department of Scholarly Information, looks at the experience of preparing bibliographies, and examines the activities of actualization and dissemination carried out in Lithuanian memory and other institutions during the Soviet period and in the present day. In his phenomenological study “Text as a Route from Semantic Memory to Gratitude”, Dr. Timofej Murašov, a researcher at the Rare Books Department, subtly examines the problem of alienation from the world, revealing its relationship to the prevalence of semantic memory and the culture of text.

The volume contains two reviews by staff members of the Library. The first one is dedicated to Mykolas Kazimieras Pacas. Dr. Justina Sipavičiūtė, a researcher at the Manuscripts Department, provides a detailed description of his documentary heritage, which is held in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Vilnius University Library. Dr. Kotryna Rekašiūtė recalls a significant but tragic event, the Great Fire that devastated Klaipėda 170 years ago. Drawing on documents, periodicals and the works of historians held in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, she presents the scale of the disaster, sharing the memories and testimonies of contemporaries.

In the section “From the Library’s Collections”, Rasa Sperskienė, a researcher at the Manuscripts Department, presents the documentary heritage of the Rūta Society, an association of Vilnius Lithuanians, revealing the content and historical significance of these unique documents.

The section entitled “The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 2023” contains a report on the Library’s activities prepared by the Academic Secretary Leokadija Kairelienė. The section also contains a list of publications by the staff of the Library for 2023, compiled by senior bibliographer Vaida Juodėnienė, a chronicle of the Library’s activities put together by Loreta Glebavičiūtė, and bibliographic information on the coverage of the Library in the media, collected by Vaida Juodėnienė.

The section “In Memoriam” offers a memorial tribute to the highly-esteemed former Director of the Library, Dr. Juozas Marcinkevičius (1931–2024) and a former long-time employee, bibliographer Lina Kanopkienė (1934–2024).

Our “Instructions for authors” offer new requirements for bibliographic references, which will be met preparing the next volume of the Proceedings.

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.

All Lithuanian and international researchers studying documentary heritage and the history and contemporary issues of memory institutions are invited to submit papers to our serial. 

Daiva Narbutienė
December 2024