Lietuva 1515 m. Vienos suvažiavimo rašytojų tekstuose

ENAfter the loss of Smolensk in the summer of 1514, an important victory followed in that autumn against the Muscovian army at the Orsha River. Although the outcomes of the military achievements of the Battle at the Orsha River and recovery of territorial losses did not appear to be very significant, what was important were the results of this victory in the international space. This depended on diplomacy and propaganda - news about the victorious triumph against the Orthodox Muscovians was spread effectively in Europe. This news of the victory presented and spread throughout Europe amid a storm of propaganda was one of the factors that encouraged the organisation of a rulers’ congress in the summer of 1515 in Bratislava (Presburg) and Vienna (attended by Emperor Maximilian I, the King of Hungary and Bohemia Ladislaus I and his brother the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund). During this congress, the Habsburg s union with the ruler of Muscovy was dissolved. This was first of all important to Lithuania, which sought to resist Muscovy’s attacks. During the Congress of Vienna, a number of poetic and prose texts were created to mark the occasion, yet historians usually use only some of the more well known texts, such as Cuspinian’s Journal In order to answer the question of how Lithuania, Vilnius or Lithuanians were mentioned in these announcements and literary sources, the author takes a close and detailed look at all the texts from the Congress of Vienna in Latin that were published there soon after the congress ended. There is a detailed presentation and discussion of all the fragments in some way related to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There are but a few, and the image and role of Lithuania they present is unfortunately neither distinctive nor significant. One of the reasons for this is that none of the authors were citizens or writers closely related to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. [From the publication]