„Non refert quam multos libros, sed quam bonos habeas“: Vilniaus evangelikų reformatų sinodo bibliotekos XVII a. knygos Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių bibliotekos Retų spaudinių skyriaus fonduose

Abstract

Straipsnyje primenamas vienos seniausių ir turtingiausių Lietuvos atminties institucijų – Vilniaus evangelikų reformatų sinodo bibliotekos likimas. Minint Lietuvos evangelikų reformatų sinodo 450 metų jubiliejų (2007), apžvelgtos Sinodo bibliotekai priklausiusios XVI a. knygos. Po penkiolikos metų vėl grįžtama prie palikimo, šį kartą nuodugniai aptariami XVII a. išleisti ir Vilniaus evangelikų reformatų sinodo bibliotekoje iki 1941-ųjų saugoti dokumentai. Pateikiami statistiniai duomenys: kiek XVII a. spausdintų dokumentų pateko į Vrublevskių biblioteką, kokiomis kalbomis ir kur jie buvo išleisti, kas jų autoriai, kokie jie. Esminiai žodžiai: Vilniaus evangelikų reformatų sinodas; Sinodo biblioteka; reformacija; Slucko gimnazija; teologinis disputas.

This article aims to give an overview of the 17th-century documents that are now kept in the Rare Books Department of the Wroblewski Library and that belonged to the library of the Vilnius Evangelical Reformed Synod until February 1941. This library was established 465 years ago, at the time of the establishment of the Vilnius Evangelical Reformed Synod, Unitas Lithuaniae. The library had a difficult time surviving since its very establishment; it was burned, moved from Vilnius to Kėdainiai and also to Slutsk, a town where the Radvila princes set up some schools (the Reformers were deprived of a right to establish higher schools in Lithuania). Extant books from the library of the Slutsk Gymnasium shed light on how books in various scholarly disciplines were registered, classified, and marked. After the World War I, the library was returned to Vilnius, where it continued to be looked after, there were attempts to compile and publish its catalogue. In 1940, when Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union, the Vilnius Evangelical Reformer Synod was terminated, and its library was given over to the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, an institution established on the basis of the former Wroblewski Library. The war Soviet Union with Nazi Germany, which started on June 22, 1941, became an obstacle to the integration of the Synod library. There is no evidence as to how it was stored and handled during the war. During the retreat of the German army from Vilnius in July 1944, the building of the Synod library in Pylimo Street burned down (perhaps, it was set on fire intentionally). Information spread that the library had perished, therefore the books that had been saved in some way and emerged afterwards, were given over to various libraries, in spite of the fact that they were supposed to have been transferred to the Library of the Academy of Sciences. 320 items have been discovered in the holdings of the Rare Books Department. 126 of them constitute just three composite sets. Most of the extant publications are on religious topics and reflect the development of the Reformation. The majority of the documents are in Latin. Very few historical and fiction books are extant. However, that which remains makes it possible to grasp some realities of the 17th-century life and thus represents interesting and valuable heritage. Keywords: Vilnius Evangelical Reformed Synod; Synod library; Reformation; Slutsk Gymnasium; theological dispute.