Vilniaus senienų muziejaus rankraščių rinkinio likimas

ENLithuanian and international historiography contains a great deal of information about the nature of the collections and the exhibition of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. The collections of archaeology and art have been analysed, and in the newest research, attention has been drawn to the structure of Eustachy Tyszkiewicz’s (1814-1873) private library that was transferred to the museum. The main stages of the development of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities have also received research attention. However, the museums collection of manuscript documents, quite large even for our times, and its complicated fate have never been analysed beyond two basic statements: 1) the basis of the manuscript collection of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities consisted of the document collection accumulated by Tyszkiewicz and later supplemented by various individuals and public institutions; 2) the collection formed after the museums reorganisation in 1865 was handed over to the newly established Vilnius Public Library.The author of the present research aims to analyse the history of the document collection of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities in more detail: at first, to examine the accumulated collection of documents, to establish the basic ways and stages of its accumulation and to discuss the curating principles of the collection and the works of document research and publication. In the reconstruction of the history of the collection after the closure of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities, the aim is to identify which documents have survived and in which memory institutions of Lithuania they are held. The personality of the curator of the manuscript department of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities, which was called the Archaeography Department at the time, a member of the Vilnius Chapter, Prelate Mamert z Fulsztyna Herburt (1789-1873), and other individuals who contributed to the curating of the collection are presented. The research is based on the documents of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities that have reached our times, as well as other printed and archival sources. [From the publication]