1671 m. Vilniuje veiklą pradėjusios Pranciškonų konventualų spaustuvės raida ir leidiniai spaudos istorikų įdėmiau nėra tirti. Manoma, kad iš viso per gyvavimo šimtmetį (1671–1781, su pertraukomis) ši spaustuvė yra išleidusi daugiau kaip 160 pavadinimų leidinių, iš jų lietuvių kalba – 13. Straipsnyje apžvelgiamas spaustuvės steigties kontekstas, pateikiami raidos metmenys, teminiu, kalbiniu, poligrafiniu-meniniu požiūriais nagrinėjami Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių bibliotekoje esantys šios spaustuvės leidiniai (67 pavadinimų). Daroma išvada, kad, laikoma viena iš vadinamų mažųjų LDK oficinų, Pranciškonų spaustuvė atliko vaidmenį LDK spaudos istorijoje: jos leidiniai įsiliejo į LDK leidinių visetą ir jį reikšmingai pagausino.
In 1671, a new, Franciscan, printing house was opened in Vilnius. For this city, it was the time of recovery
from the Deluge (the devastation wrought by Muscovites in 1655–1661), when construction on new
churches began, acclaimed European artists came here to work, and the cultural and religious life grew livelier.
The Franciscan Printing House (oficina) had existed in Vilnius for over a century (1671–1781, with
breaks) and published more than 160 publications, of which 13 were in the Lithuanian language. This was
the only printing house in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and one of the two in the entire Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth belonging to the Franciscan Conventuals (the other Franciscan printing house had briefly, in
1769?–1774, operated in Lwów; the Bernardines did not have their own printing enterprises). Information
about the activities of the Franciscan Printing House can be found in works by historians of the Church and
monastic orders, handbooks of book studies and universal encyclopedias; this printing house is an object of
complex research by book historians, but its history and publishing output are still in need of in-depth studies.
The article overviews the context of the establishment of the Franciscan printing house, providing an outline
of its development. It also offers a thematic, linguistic, and artistic analysis of the publications of this printing
house now held in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (67 titles). These are both
the object of the article and a source for the research. The publications, now in the holdings of the Library’s
Rare Books Department, do not make a separate collection, being an integral part of the 17th–18th-century
Lituanica Collection. They came to the Library from various personal and institutional libraries or collections
along with other print publications of those times.
The present research confirmed an assessment by book historians that the repertoire of the Franciscan printing
house was not wide, most of its publications being on religious topics. A majority of books from this
printing house in the holdings of the Wroblewski library are those with religious content (86,6 %). Fictional
and sociopolitical literature makes just 7,5 %, and treatises on other subjects, even less: state and law, 2,9 %;
history, 1,5 %; and mathematics, 1,5 %. Linguistically, the 67 titles are distributed as follows: 17th-century
publications in Latin are 10; and in Polish, 10; 18th-century publications in Polish are 32; in Latin, 13; and in
Lithuanian, 2. Most of the authors and editors of the publications were Franciscans, but the printing house
gladly published works by Benedictine, Dominican, and Basilian authors, as well as those by monks from
other orders (the Carmelites, the Piarists, and the Missionaries). The authors of translated works formed a
minority.
The opinion that publications of the Franciscan printing house lack printing and artistic quality, which is
now prevailing in historiography, may be accepted only partially. In reality, Franciscan publications often have
proofreading mistakes, but some of their books are extremely well printed. Ornamentation in books from this
printing house reminds that of other Vilnius printing houses of the times (Vilnius Academy’s, Basilians’, Piarists’)
– the same ornamental plates used to be copied, rented, purchased, etc. There are no original engravings
in the Franciscans’ publications from the holdings of the Wroblewski Library.
To conclude, the Franciscan printing house, one of the so-called smaller printing houses of the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania, played its role in the history of printing of the Grand Duchy: its publications merged into the
entirety of the printed matter in the Grand Duchy, making a significant addition. The publications of this
printing house in the holdings of the Wroblewski Library represent the everyday life of 17th–18th-century Vilnius
printing houses. Even though the thematic distribution of the publications is not diverse (with religious
literature being predominant), they nevertheless demonstrate general trends in the publishing of those times
(in subjects, languages, authors, etc.).
