Studijoje apžvelgiami ankstyviausi LDK leidiniai, pasirodę Krokuvoje, Milane, Prahoje, Romoje,
Vilniuje bei kai kuriuose kituose miestuose iki Pranciškaus Skorinos mirties (1551–1552) ir pirmosios
nuolat veikusios LDK spaustuvės darbo pradžios (1553). Publikacijoje aptariamos 77 knygos, išspausdintos
nuo 1494 iki 1553 metų imtinai bažnytine slavų, lietuvių, lenkų, vokiečių ir lotynų kalbomis, nuo seno
LDK vartotomis rašto bei komunikacijos reikalams. Tai pirmas toks bandymas pateikti apibendrintą ankstyviausios
spausdintinės LDK knygos visomis kalbomis vaizdą.
This study is an overview of the earliest publications of the GDL published in Cracow, Milan, Prague,
Rome, Vilnius and some other cities before two events close in time to each other: the death of Francysk
Skaryna (1551–1552) and the opening of the GDL’s first long-running printing (1553). The article provides
discussion of 77 books printed in the time period from 1494 to 1553 in Church Slavonic, Lithuanian,
Polish, German and Latin, the languages used in the GDL for writing and communication from the early
times. This is a first attempt to offer a general picture of the multilingual heritage of the earliest print
book in the GDL. In the present article, all these publications are classified into three groups. The first
one roughly corresponds to the reign of Alexander Jagiellonczyk (reigned in 1492–1506); the second, of
Sigismund the Old (reigned in 1506–1548); and the third, Sigismund August (reigned in 1544–1572). In
1492–1506, seven books were published, all in Latin. In 1507–1543, 48 books were published, 25 of them
in Latin, 22 in Church Slavonic, and one in German. In 1544–1553, 22 books came out, 17 of them in
Latin, three in Polish, and two in Lithuanian. Evaluating the earliest GDL publications from the thematic
point of view, we determined that most publications issued at that time were works in religion (49). Poetry
and publications in art and rhetoric are the second numerous group (21), followed by books in political and
social affairs, medicine, and astronomy (two each) and philosophical writings (one book). These numbers
are in line with the development of European printing of the second half of the 15th – the 16th century.
While at the turn of the 15th–16th centuries the majority of publications in Europe were of religious content,
later the proportion of such literature decreased from 45 percent in 1500 to 25–30 percent in the 17th
century. All or nearly all books of the Old Testament and one part of the New Testament published by
Francysk Skaryna in Prague and Vilnius in Church Slavonic endow the printing of the GDL in 1494–1553
with indisputable originality. In the context of the multilingual literature of the GDL, Skaryna’s input may
be described as follows: in the first half of the 16th century he carried on the tradition of writing in Church
Slavonic and Ruthenian and took up a new opportunity, that of printing in Cyrillic.
