Old lithuanian literature

„Donelaičio kirčiavimas. Přízvukování u Donalitia“ is the first ever linguistic monograph (doctor thesis) on the accentuation of Kristijonas Donelaitis, written by the famous Czech professor Karel Janáček in 1928 in Brno. The manuscript was never published and was rediscovered by Vaidas Šeferis in the year 1997 at the Library of the Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic). With the support of Ministries of Education of both Czech Republic and Lithauanian Republic this work was then published in Brno, Vaidas Šeferis being the editor and translator of the monograph into Lithuanian and prof. Bonifacas Stundžia providing comprehensive analysis of the Janáček’ monograph. Below is the row-text of the book and both forewords (by Vaidas Šeferis and Bonifacas Stundžia). To purchase the book please contact Vaidas Šeferis via e-mail [email protected].

Concerning time of birth of the first book publisher in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, most diverse theories have been expressed. The spectrum of opinions is extraordinarily wide and full of contradictions. For lack of new documents, which could pour new light on F. Skaryna’s life, we have to be content with the few available sources. The article examines his known portrait from 1517 and studies the included text elements (parenthesis), primarily with help of semiological analysis. Although there is a large amount of literature about the publisher’s portrait, it hasn’t been studied within the most obvious and obligatory genre paradigm – the European and in particular Czech Portrait paintings of the first quarter of 16th century. Skaryna’s portrait is the second precisely dated Czech portrait in the Renaissance period and the first portrait of a bourgeoisie representative. All Czech portraits from the first half of the 16th century contain information about the age of the pictured person at the time the portrait was taken. The portrait of F. Skaryna is no exception. The embedded inscriptions, traditionally attached to portraits, inform us, according to a common practice of the era, about «doctor Francysk Skaryna, aged 47 years, pictured in 1517». The combination of letters М and З, earlier interpreted as artist’s or painter’s signature (*MƷ), actually means age of the depicted person (МЗ = 47 [years]). The same pattern, occuring most often in Latin (ANNO … ÆTATIS SUÆ … ; 1522 ÆT XXII; Aº. 1519 ÆT 27), can be found on countless tempera, oil and engraved portraits from 15th and 16th century. The portrait of the Ruthenian publisher from 1517 is a paraphrase of the well-known engraving «Saint Jerome in His Study» («Der heilige Hieronymus im Gehäus») by A. Dürer from 1514. Since he wasn’t just an average imitator, the inventive Prague artist transformed the inspiration source, but at the same time, both the mutual connection (St. Jerome = Fr. Skaryna) and the allusion remained obvious. «Monogrammist IP», i.e. the skilful author of Skaryna’s portrait, can be for many reasons identified as «Master of the Litoměřice Altarpiece». Largely speaking, he was the only artist we know of, who worked with the aforementioned genre at that time. The portrait from 1517 brings an important biographic detail to light and reveals that F. Skaryna lived a long life. The time of his life (taking in account critical reading of sources from 1541 and 1552) stretched from 1470 to 1551/52. In 2020, 550 years will have passed since F. Skaryna was born.

An analysis of sources mentioning the fates of Francysk (František, (†02.06.1541) and Simeon (†not earlier than 1593) expands our knowledge about the social circle of the Skaryna family. Skaryna’s elder son had close connections with Jan of Puchov ( Jan z Puchova), his younger son, with Jiři Cetl Netolicky. The both patrons were canons of the St. Vitus cathedral in Prague, and, being zealous proponents of Catholicism, achieved high positions in church hierarchy: those of administrator and archpresbyter. This information is important when looking into the confessional orientation of the Skaryna family. The children of the first printer in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were in service to individuals who accrued the reputation of distinguished literary figures in Czechia.
Simeon the Russian was employed by a family in Hradec and also had ties to Česky Krumlov, where he was physician to Jiři Netolicky, Archpresbyter of Bechyne. Jiři served in Hradec from 1564 to 1568 (Simeon might have become his personal physician at that time or even earlier), after which he went to live in Prague for two years, and later moved to Krumlov. In a similar fashion, a talented physician-gardener might have been passed from one master to another.
Skaryna’s printing activities in Prague corresponded in time with the activities with one of the key officials of the Czech kingdom, whose family seat was also situated in Southern Czechia, in Bechyne. It was Ladislaus of Šternberk (Ladislav ze Šternberka na Bechyni), who occupied the post of the High Chancellor of the Kingdom of Bohemia (supremus cancellarius regni Bohemiae) from 1510 to 1521. It is probable that upon his return to Prague, Skaryna might have approached his old patrons and their descendants, whose favors might have also been transferred to his son. This may explain why it was in Southern Czechia that Simeon the Russian pursued his gardening and medical activities.
The personal library of Francysk Skaryna must also have ended up in Sourthern Czechia. One of the books, the Little Traveller’s Book, was discovered in the early ninth decade of the 18th century by a Czech Slavicist, the Jesuit Josef Dobrovsky.
Jiři Cetl Netolicky, who was of the similar age as the first printer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, earned a wide acclaim as the author of a book containing interesting botanical and medical reflections. The description of the sun and the young moon on the pages of his Kaʒanij o Bijdě nyněgſſyho naſſeho Ʒiwota (1568) might suggest that this emblematic image of the eternally young (or, more precisely, constantly rejuvenating) celestial bodies betokens the medical vocation of Francysk Skaryna.
Prior to entering the University of Prague, he could have attended a school in the New Town, a probable place of residence of Skaryna himself.

* Straipsnis parengtas vykdant mokslo tyrimų projektą "Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštijos tradicija, vaizdinys ir modernūs tapatumai". Projektą finansavo Lietuvos mokslo taryba, sutarties Nr. VAT-19/2010. Nuoširdžiai dėkoju Grasildai Blažienei ir Markui Roduneriui, patikrinusiems mano atliktą vokiškų citatų vertimą.

What genesis, what characteristics the so-called myth of Sovius has in the Chronograph of 1262, what are the structure and the size of this tale, what is the origin of Sovius's name? Only a comprehensive research of the extant sources, allowing to make sounder conclusions about this legend, makes it possible to venture into a more speculative area of mythology and comparative folklore studies. In this respect, the present book, (while rather late-appearing, considering the tradition in the research of the legend of Sovius) is supposed to lay groundwork for further research. The author hopes for a critical revision of earlier reconstructions, various myths about the myth, as well for increase in intensity of research based on textological facts and arguments. So far, the Chronograph of 1262 has been understood as a banal compilation, which accidentally combined rare and mutually unrelated texts. As a "repository" full to the brim of various rarities, the Chronograph was dissected into various smaller pieces, which were used for specific purposes by mythologists (the myth of Sovius), by Byzantinists (Malalas chronicle), by specialists in ancient Bulgarian literature (Shestodnev by Ekzarch the Bulgarian) etc. The present work offers a new, essentially different outlook on the Chronograph as on a harmonious whole, an exceptional literary achievement, a vivid example of ancient Lithuanian literature. The book consists of three parts (I - analysis of literary genesis and outline of the authorial text; II - analysis of the masterpiece on the basis of all known manuscripts, indicating their different redactions; III - reconstruction of the authorial text on the basis of textological analysis.

The article deals with the crucial question of Kristijonas Donelaitis' literary work: is his Metai (The Seasons) a single and coherent literary text or a group of four independent poems?
Published in: "Literatūra", Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2012, 54 (1), p. 39-55. ISSN 0258-0802.

While solving the problems of the Book science of 16th century, we have to be very guarded in questions of terminology. This is of particular importance when we talk about “Little Traveller’s Book” which starts the history of the typography in Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There is a widespread belief that above-mentioned book was printed in Vilnius approximately in 1522. It would be more correct to say that “Little Traveller’s Book” was completed in Vilnius. Its part – eight akathists and eight canons – could have been printed earlier in Prague.
This hypothesis can be supported by several arguments. In contrast with Acts and Epistles of the Apostles (the Apostle, 1525) “Little Traveller’s Book” is not dated anywhere and regarding the content it is heterogeneous (composite) publication. In the content of “Little Traveller’s Book” particularly stand out the akathists and canons that content unique wood engravings, endpieces, vignettes, borders and initials. Two wood engravings were made by “Master of New Testament” whose works were published in Prague Book of Psalms (1517).
The autonomy of akathists as a particular publication is accented by publisher’s acrostic colophon written in the last akathist via initials. The Akathists housed in Wroclaw (Wroclaw University Library, Nr. 305071) can represent Prague period of typography. The “Evidence” of E. Nemirovkij about Vilnius origin of akathists is incorrect.

The first printed books in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – The Small Travel Book in 1522 and Catechism in 1547 – paved their way to the Ruthenian and Lithuanian reader though acrostics. The books of uniform format and similar purposes originated one after another in the same historical cultural domain; however, the acrostics by Francisk Skorina and Martynas Mažvydas have not until now been the object of a thorough comparative study. The article attempts to fill this gap. The Ruthenian acrostics of the period 1519–1522 from which M. Mažvydas could have potentially drawn his inspiration are first discussed. With reference to analogy, the characteristics of acrostics are analysed; the source of M. Mažvydas’ pieces of writing is discussed.

This article deals with the manuscript codex from the first half of the 16th century Hareticorum armatura (archive: Archiv Pražského hradu, collection: Knihovna Metropolitní kapituly u sv. Víta, sign. D.118), which is composed mostly of texts written in Latin and Czech. There is also a passage (Fig. 136–139) written in Old Russian with the Cyrillic script. On the flyleaf of the book, a record of its owner Liber mgri Johannis Hertemberger de Cubito can be found, which indicates that the book was being kept in the library of the Saint Vitus chapter (Jan Herttemberger z Lokte was the canon of the Saint Vitus chapter between 1480-1498) from the end of the 15th century.
Analysis of the book reveals a possibility that later, at the beginning of the 16th century or in the first half of the 16th century, another compilation was added to Jan Herttemberger’s volume, which contained a Cyrillic source. The fact, that the Old Russian manuscript was attached to the predominantly Latin codex, was apparently predetermined by practical thinking. The Cyrillic booklet was made of solid paper and as such could reinforce the seam line (binding) of the Latin book.
The Cyrillic text contains Latin glosses; in turn, the Latin text (Poggi Florentini ad Leonardum Aretinum epistola de morte Hieronymi Pragensis, f. 169v–175v) contains a Cyrillic note , which is to be found in the margins on f. 174v. These features indicate that the compiler or the owner of the codex was a literate Catholic of the first half of the 16th century, who mastered writing in Cyrillic script and knew Old Russian. Of all famous persons of East Slavic origin, only F. Skaryna is closely associated with the Prague royal court (the Prague Castle) in 1534–1539. The content of the manuscript (the register of numerals and the recipe of ink) can be linked to a private press (the pagination of Skoryna’s publications could be made with the help of the list of ordinal numbers).

The paper analyses the domain of myconyms in the Lithuanian poem "The Seasons" (Metai) by Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714-1780). The problems that emerged during its translation into Italian are taken into account. Some traditional identifications are rejected, while new possible candidates are suggested on the basis of old lexicographical attestations. As far as the Italian translation is concerned, the efforts to preserve not only the exact denotation, but also the poetic connotations of the original lexemes is highlighted.

The article provides the micro-compositional textual analysis of the beginning of „The cares of Winter” (a part of The Seasons) by Kristijonas Donelaitis. The analysis reveals the unique nature of this text and gives the insight into general features of Donelaitis’ poetics, such as conflicting narrative–time structures (circular and linear), topology of the poetic universe (where categories of order and disorder seem to be the basic ones) and the structural discrepancy between the paradigmatic and syntagmatic levels of the text. The analysis leads to the conclusion, that The Seasons are not to be considered as one and coherent poem, but as a poetical cycle of four independent poems.

This document contains three excerpts from my monograph "Kristijono Donelaičio 'Metų' rišlumas": the contents, English summary (translated by Aušra Simanavičiūtė) and German Zusammenfassung (translated by Lina PLaušinaitytė).

The monograph itself could be obtained in the Institute of the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in Vilnius (Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas), in selected Lithuanian bookstores (please visit http://www.llti.lt/lt/platinimas) or in the internet-bookstores. Its exact title is:

Vaidas Šeferis. Kristijono Donelaičio "Metų" rišlumas, Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2014.

The article deals with basic questions on the composition of The Seasons by Kristijonas Donelaitis: the author himself did not leave specific instructions about the generic definition of this text nor on its structure (i. e. which of four parts is to be considered as the first, the last or if they should be read as independent poems), and there exist two contradicting compositional concepts of The Seasons. The first (and most influential) was introduced by Ludwig Rhesa in the first edition of The Seasons (1818) and regards them as a cohesive whole, which is to be read from “Joys of Spring” to “Cares of Winter”, i. e. according to the natural course of seasons. Whereas the second conception (forged by Nesselmann, who edited the third edition of Donelaitis’ works in 1869) postulates, that four Donelaitis’ seasons are autonomous poems. The article shows, that neither of both conceptions solves the problem of the composition of The Seasons. A new approach to the subject is proposed by analyzing the isotopic structure of the discourse and by identifying the principles of its paradigmatic and syntagmatic cohesion.
As the article shows, paradigmatic cohesion of this text is based on the opposition between ethical categories “virtue” and “vice”, which are embedded in the deep layers of the narrative and thus undelays and semantically unifies different events on the surface of the text. The “stories told” within The Seasons may vary, but the main concept ‒ the profound contrast between divine “virtue” and diabolic “vice” ‒ remains, thus producing our perception of the cohesiveness of this text.
The syntagmatic structure of The Seasons is much looser: there is certainly no unifying plot or macro-compositional plan in The Seasons. However this does not mean, that single episodes are connected chaotically. Along with the contrastive oppositions in The Seasons (e.g. devote and modest birds are opposed to the greedy and coursing lord; hard-working Pričkus engage a passionate debate with the lazy Slunkius etc.) the article introduces and explains a new principle of how one episode is connected to the other by specific “syntagmatic seams”.
The results of our analysis show, that The Seasons build a cohesive cyclic structure without given points of the beginning or end. The inner coherence of this cycle is based on the paradigmatic level of the narration, whereas syntagmatic cohesion has a less significant role.

The article describes methodologic premises of the compositional textual analysis of "The Seasons" by Kristijonas Donelaitis. The analysis reveals the unique nature of this text and gives the insight into general features of Donelaitis’ poetics, such as conflicting narrative–time structures (circular and linear), topology of the poetic universe (where ethical categories such as “honesty” or “wickedness” seem to be the basic ones) and the structural discrepancy between the paradigmatic and syntagmatic levels of the text. It also discuss the question of plausibility of different interpretations of "The Seasons", e. g. it is shown, that interpretations of "The Seasons" as a description of the Lithuanian nature or description of the labours of the peasants lack plausibility.

This article focuses on the colophons of F. Skaryna’s Prague editions from 1517 to 1520. A comparative analysis of them indicates that the publisher was meticulous in identifying the origin of each colophon edition. The phrase, «in the Old City of Prague» which Skaryna used until August of 1518, was eventually amended to be known as, «in the Great City of Prague». This amendment was predetermined by actual historical events such as the unification of the Old and New Cities into the Great City of Prague on the 30th of August 1518. Other examples of influence of this historical situation on the illustrative style of the book are traced. Particular attention has been paid to locating the printing house where Skaryna’s colophons were first created. The printing of Skaryna’s Ruthenian Bible in the year 1519, as an example, took place in a rented printing shop that was owned by the merchant Severin. After the death of his father, Pavel Severin could break the lease agreement, thereby, ending book publishing activities of Skaryna in Prague. Arguments have been made that Skaryna was not the only tenant of the printing shop. At some point during the years of 1517 to 1519 Skaryna met with «The printer of the Prague Bible», and the Jewish book-printer, Gershom Cohen, whose high-quality products possessed many stylistic and polygraphic features. Special correlation at the level of the colophons is traced between the printer of the Prague Bible and F. Skaryna. The colophon of the Prague Bible of 1488 had a serious and multilateral influence on the paratext of the Ruthenian Bible. This allows us to conclude, that in the process of preparing the biblical text, F. Skaryna proceeded not from the palaeotype of 1506, that is not from the Venice Bible (as it is still believed), but from the Prague incunabula of 1488. The first edition of the Bible in Czech (and generally in the Slavic language), was perfectly known and readily available to Skaryna, due to the number of printed copies that were available in Severin’s printing shop and by the established link with the printer of the Prague Bible. Additionally, this article describes the fate of the house, «At half a golden moon», where Severin’s printing shop was located and had been functioning from 1484–1488 and for many decades after. A few preserved drawings and images allow us to restore the workplace of the printing house of the end of the XV and of the first quarter of the XVI centuries.

The Tale of Sovius, which forms the basis of the 18th chapter of the Chronograph of 1262, raises questions about its own origin – oral or translated-written. It is sensible to carry out the discussion among folklorists and medievalists which sometimes re¬sembles a dispute, on the basis of comparative textology. In order to substantiate the authenticity of the text and its folkloric features, it is useful to describe as many sto¬ryline parallels as possible. The view of Jiří Polívka’s Prague Geographical-Historical School encourages us first of all to survey the region of North-Eastern Europe.
In East Slavic folklore we can find two texts comparable to the Tale of Sovius. They are both closely interconnected. One of them is attested in the 12th century annals “The Tale of Bygone Years” (records depicting the events of 945–946), but it derives from an older collection of annals (Nachal’nyi Svod) dating back to the ninth decade of the 11th century. This collection is made of elementary folklore sto¬rylines traditionally called “Duchess Olga’s Revenge on Drevlians for Her Husband’s Murder.” The other text is an epic song about the hero Mikhail Potyk.
A comparative analysis of the bylina and the narrative in the annals shows that East Slavs once had a related work of a similar structure and semantics. The fact that the folklore work was recorded in the annals reveals an important circumstance – the narrative was so well-known and relevant that after it had penetrated into a literary medium, it had a significant impact on the formation of the historiographical genre in Kievan Rus’ and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The narrative, widespread in the East Slavic territory, related a story about the character’s encounter with an antago¬nist (possessing characteristics of a witch or some other mythical being) who tried three times in a row to get rid of the character: the character is buried into the earth, cremated and killed/buried on a tree.
These parallels of the Sovius storyline, which are to be studied in East Slavic folk¬lore and old historiography, support the folkloric character of the tale.

In questa relazione si discute un aspetto specifico della recente traduzione italiana del poema "Metai" di Kristijonas Donelaitis (K. Donelaitis, "Le Stagioni", Novi Ligure: Joker, 2014). Ci si concentra sulla traduzione dei nomi di fungo e sul problema della loro identificazione.
In particolare viene argomentata, sulla base di strumenti lessicografici del XVIII secolo, l'identificazione del fungo lit. bobausis (alla lett. "orecchio di vecchia") come Morchella (it. spugnola) contrariamente all'uso attuale e più diffuso secondo cui bobausis indica la Gyromitra esculenta.