"Latinitas" Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje : chronologija, ypatybės ir recepcijos pavidalai

ENLatin culture, referred to simply as Latinitas in the present article, reached Lithuania together with King Mindaugas (1263) baptism and his coronation in the middle of the 13th century. The first known document was written in Latin. This was King Mindaugas privilege granted to the merchants of Livonia and dated 25 Mar. 1253 - 24 Mar. 1254. From that time on Latin writing went a long and impressive way enriching the culture of not only Lithuania but also that of Europe with original spiritual monuments. The way of Latin writing can be divided into three stages of different length but of almost similar significance: origin, strengthening and independent development. The period of origin lasted from the rule of Mindaugas to that of Alexander Jagiellonian (5 Oct. 1460 - 20 Jul. 1506). It is characterised by intensive reception of the Latin language and writing, incomplete repertoire of Latin writing of the Middle Ages and a non-creative use of the language and writing. Some phenomena mark the end of this stage, which testify to an independent creative expression of the Latin language and writing in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) (the scriptorium of Vilnius Bernadine Monastery, the high school in Vilnius Dominican Monastery, the first books written by Lithuanian authors and printed). The second stage covers the period of the rule of Sigismund the Old (1 Jan. 1467 - 1 Apr. 1548) and Sigismund Augustus (1 Aug. 1520 - 7 Jul. 1572). During this period the Lithuanian authors created works of different kinds and genres. At the beginning of the period the attitude towards Lithuania and the Lithuanians expressed in Latin works by the European authors changed from the earlier negative to a positive one. At the end of the period the first Latin books were printed in the GDL (Grzegorz Pawel Antidotum contra articulos juki novae, 1564, and others).The third stage encompasses the period from Stefan Batory (27 Sep. 1533 -12 Dec. 1586) to Stanislaw August Poniatowski (47 Jan. 1732 - 12 Feb. 1798). During this period Latin literature flourished. Works that were important to the whole of Europe were created. At the end of the period, in the years of Enlightenment, the Latin language gradually began to give way to national languages, first of all to the Polish language. It should be underlined that with the end of the state the development of Latinitas did not come to an end in Lithuania. It has been going on to the present day. When in assessing the development of Latinitas from the perspective of Latin books, its scale and its heydays can be seen. In the 15th century three works by the Lithuanian authors were published, in the 16th century - this figure stood at 373, in the 17th century it reached 1175 books and in the 18th century it amounted to 1790. Fiction of that time (works of poetry, rhetoric prose and plays) constitute the largest part. Between the 16th and the 18th century their number totalled 1364 (counting by titles; 40.83% of a total number of publications). Second by size was religious writing. In the 15th - 18th century, as many as 1106 religious books were published (33.1% of a total number of publications). Scientific literature came third. Between the 16th and the 18th century 529 works in the humanities appeared (15.83% of a total number of publications). [...]. [From the publication]

• Pranciškaus Skorinos knygos ir jų amžininkai - ankstyviausieji Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštijos leidiniai / Sigitas Narbutas. Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių biblioteka. 2019, 2015-2016, p. 12-62.
• Sãva ir svẽtima. Latinitas Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės tyrimuose / Skirmantas Knieža. Literatūra. 2020, t. 62 (3), p. 93-110.