Renesanso knyga Vidurio ir Vakarų Lietuvoje: sklaidos keliai ir senosios bibliotekos

Abstract

The article discusses the dissemination of the printed word in the provinces of Samogitia and Central Lithuania in the XVI century. It explores how city residents, landed gentry and clergy of Central and Western Lithuania started their acquaintance with the book. The article also addresses possible ways of obtaining books, bibliophilic nature of private book collections, the migration of personal book collections to the growing libraries of educational centres. Most attention is accorded to the XV–XVI centuries‘ books with ownership-testifying inscriptions, which are kept in libraries of the present-day Kaunas. Some interesting copies of such books have marginals written by famous upholders of Lithuanian culture. The author concludes that 1) the spread of books in Central and Western Lithuania was predetermined by the establishment of the new religion – Christianity; 2) the European orientation of the new nobility encouraged the need of higher education, which was instrumental for the appearance of the personal collections amassed either for the purposes of study or post-study; 3) the expansion of literacy among the lower classes made the book important as both an educational aid and a possession; 4) the spread of books in the provinces demonstrated a more active integration of the provinces of Lithuania into social and political life of the state.