Latinitas in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Chronology, specifics and forms of reception
ENLatin culture reached Lithuania along with the christening of King Mindaugas (†1263) and his coronation in the mid-thirteenth century. The first known document written in Latin is the Charter given by King Mindaugas to Livonian traders, dated 25.03.1253-24.03.1254. Since then, Lithuanian literature has travelled a long and impressive road, enriching not only Lithuanian, but also European, culture with its distinctive masterpieces of spiritual culture. The road travelled by Latin literature in Lithuania may be divided into three sections of different lengths, but of similar significance: its emergence, its establishment and its independent development. Its emergence spanned the period from the rule of Mindaugas to that of Alexander Jagiellon (*05.10.1460-†20.07.1506). The second period lasted from the rule of Sigismund I the Old (*01.01.1467-†01.04.1548) to that of Sigismund II August (*01.08.1520-†07.07.1572). The third period encompassed the time from Stephen I Bátory (*27.09.1533-†12.12.1586) to Stanisław August Poniatowski (*17.01.1732-†12.02.1798). Evaluating the development of Latinitas from the perspective of Latin books throws light on its abundance. In the fifteenth century, just 3 books by Lithuanian authors appeared; in the sixteenth century, 373; by the seventeenth century, there were 1175; by the eighteenth century, no fewer than 1790. Most of them featured the belleslettres of those days (poetry; rhetorical prose and dramatics): 1364 titles in this subject area (40.83% of the total number of publications) appeared in the sixteenth-eighteenth century. The second in abundance is religious literature. In the fifteenth-eighteenth century, 1106 religious books were published (33.1% of the total). The third is literature in humanities. The sixteenth-eighteenth century, saw the publication of 529 works in humanities (15.83% of the total). [From the publication]
