Abstract:
This article examines the fate of the oldest library in Lithuania, founded in 1557 at the Vilnius Evangelical Reformers Synod. On February 20, 1941 the library of the Vilnius Evangelical Reformers Synod was handed over to the newly founded Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences; however, there had not been enough time to integrate the Synod Library’s collections into the new holdings before the start of the World War II. Near the end of the war, a rumor was started that the Hitler’s army, while retreating from Vilnius, set afire and destroyed the Synod Library. Nonetheless, some books bearing the stamps of the library of the Vilnius Evangelical Synod have been discovered in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. The article describes only the 16th century Synod books and discusses their topics, authors, publishers and inscriptions left by readers.
