Habent sua fata libelli : библиофильство и первые библиотеки в княжестве Жемайтийском

Abstract

The article examines the spread of books as modernizing spiritual and cultural means in Samogitia in the 15thñ17th centuries with the focus on the early manifestations of bibliophilia among the priests of the Samogitian Diocese and their first personal book collections. The script tradition and entrenchment of a book in Samogitia signified the transition from verbal communication and jurisdiction to normative universalia. The spread and establishment of the script culture promoted more rapid formation of a new world outlook and became a stimulus for society modernization. The specificity of Christianity enabled the necessity of a book in most remote parishes. In the course of time, a book found its way from liturgy to a parsonage and was first of all perceived as means for spiritual and intellectual security, as well as that for self-education. For this reason, up to the first half of the 16th century, a private book was most common only in the church environment. The Samogitian canon Motiejus was one of the first in Samogitia who had a small collection of religious books as confirmed in his will of November 8, 1490. In the period under discussion, a tradition of collegial book usage named after a Renaissance formula Sibi et suis comparauit was forming among the Samogitian clergy. The middle of the 16th century witnessed a rapid growth in the number of Samogitian clergy having bigger or smaller personal collections of books, most often of religious content. The first clergyman who accumulated a rich personal library and bequeathed it for the education of the youth and future clergy (he left 100 books for Kra˛iai Jesuit College) was the Bishop of Samogitia Merkelis Giedraitis (around 1536-1609). [...]