"Колокол Шедибора Волимонтовича" - экспонат Музея древностей при Виленской публичной библиотеке

ENThe National Museum of Lithuania holds a unique exhibit, which has so far received little research attention. It is a bell cast for the Church of the Holy Trinity by the bell founder Ustyak on commission from the lieutenant of Kaunas and Ukmergė, Shedibor Volimontovich (Шедибор Волимонтович, ?-1432) in 1419 or 1420. In 1867, the so-called “Shedibor Bell” was brought from the Church of the Holy Trinity in the village of Niewodnica to the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities (at that time, Niewodnica was part of the Grodno governorate, Białystok district). Although brief information about “The Shedibor Bell” was soon announced, the bell itself was displayed in the museum’s exhibition and, moreover, an inscription on the bell in the Ruthenian language could well be used to prove the ancient roots of “Russian origins in the North Western Region” (probably it was due to this reason that the bell was transferred to the museum), up until the late 20th century this exhibit of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities did not become a subject of special and thorough research. The customer who commissioned the bell is quite a well-known magnate and political figure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the first third of the 15th century. The commission to cast a bell testifies to Shedibor Volimontovich’s considerable financial possibilities, and alongside, his broad-mindedness.There is quite a great amount of information about 15th century Lithuanian bells with Latin inscriptions, and it is known that more than once citizens of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (even the Archbishop of Novgorod the Great) commissioned bells in foreign foundries of Riga or Danzig (today, Gdansk). The master who cast “The Shedibor Bell” probably worked in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but in order to specify the place of its production, campanological research, i.e. analysis of the features of its form and the chemical structure of the metal, is necessary. So far it is not known exactly for which church the bell was cast. It is hardly possible that it was the same sanctuary in which it was found, as it was not until the late 16th century that the Niewodnica church was mentioned in the sources. Taking into account the practice of church endowments of the magnates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th century, it can also be presumed that the bell may have been cast for the Church of the Holy Trinity in Deltuva, the centre of the Volimontovich patrimony, if it was built earlier than 1444 (this date is usually indicated in the sources). The bell may have been transferred to Niewodnica by the successors of Shedibor Volimontovich’s brother, Kęsgailą Volimontovich. [From the publication]