Straipsnio tikslas – remiantis Vilniaus universiteto bibliotekos (toliau – VUB) Rankraščių skyriuje
saugomu giminės archyvu, rekonstruoti XVII–XX a. Kvintų šeimos genealogiją ir socialinę aplinką.
Giminės archyvas yra pagrindinis tyrimo šaltinis, padedantis atskleisti giminės realijas Lietuvos Didžiosios
Kunigaikštystės (toliau – LDK) žlugimo laikotarpiu ir vėliau, Rusijos imperijos valdymo laikais. Straipsnyje
pirmiausia aptariamas pats archyvas: jo apimtis, turinys, patekimo į biblioteką aplinkybės. Paskui bandoma
rekonstruoti Kvintų giminės genealogiją, galiausiai – atkurti giminės socialinę aplinką, turtinę padėtį ir ūkį.
The aim of the article is to analyze a small personal archive of the Kvinta noble family, kept in the Manuscript
Department of the Vilnius University Library. Such a research of a family’s genealogy throws light
on the life of the nobility in general, and thus lays the groundwork for scientific analysis by other scholars.
In addition, it presents new archival sources to the scientific community.
The present archive contains documents dated from the middle of the 17th century till the end of the 19th
century. Family information for later periods was found in the historiography. The article gives a genealogic
overview of a period of the family life from the Mykolas Kvinta (the end of the 17th century) till the Vladislovas
Kvinta (the second half of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century).
First, the article analyses the family archive: how the collection came to be in the Library and what is its
structure. It further discusses the coat of arms of the Kvinta family and its appearance in the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania. The article also provides a drawing of the family tree and overviews the family’s most important
property. The final part of the article deals with the social history of the family and presents a
restoration of its everyday life (education, noble fashion, food habits, possessions etc.) based on the analysis
of the extant documents.
