For centuries, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania constituted a place of operation of numerous Latin religious observations: monks, mendicant orders as well as canonical and clerical, and its capital – Vilnius – was one of the most important...
moreFor centuries, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania constituted a place of operation of numerous Latin religious observations: monks, mendicant orders as well as canonical and clerical, and its capital – Vilnius – was one of the most important centers of religious life of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the convents that played the role of an outstanding carrier of the ideas of christianitas and latinitas as well as an intermediary in the transmission of specific cultural content, both in a broad institutional sense and as individual institutions. Rooted in European civilization, they influenced all areas of social life, including, in particular, the organization of the education system.
The research focused on reconstruction as well as unearthing the mechanisms of the functioning of the phenomena constituting the book culture in Roman Catholic monasteries – from the 15th century right to the liquidation of the local religious network and the dissolution of individual institutions. They were based on the assumption that memory, as a human ability to consolidate experience and build knowledge about oneself and the world and to form group identity, is particularly important for the environments integrated by religion. Implementation of a specific way of thinking, subordinated to spiritual goals and shaped in accordance with religious legislation, implies the use of specific communication practices, some of which are implemented within the community, while some consist of complex relationships with church structures and society. Therefore, attention was paid to the specificity of the functioning of the Latin Church structures in a specific social environment and their participation in shaping a specific model of culture in the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Considering the permanence of the presence of religion in the social space, its significance not only in the sacrum sphere, but also as a social phenomenon is a proof of the importance of the functioning of environments shaped by specific values and their influence on society.
The subject of the undertaken analyzes was, in particular, the presence of literature created and used by religious communities that implemented the life model based on common values and similar communication practices. The choice of such an approach points to the characteristics of how the normative provisions and behavioral patterns promoted in this environment influenced the shape and multitude of practices of creating and using religious, literary, scientific, and utilitarian texts in monasteries. The rich source material, which included catalogs as well as book inventories, including various texts produced and used in this environment, constituted the basis of the research. They served not only the implementation of accepted spiritual ideals, but in a broader context they showed diverse forms of the presence of religious institutions in Old Polish society. Therefore, efforts were made to identify the thematic threads that make it possible to describe the universal phenomena and processes characterizing the circulation of books in the religious environment, which has its origin in specific church legislation as well as the implemented forms of activity and presence in the world.
In particular, the aim was to determine under what circumstances, how, and by what types of texts the communities of religious orders communicated with each other. The objective was to show the influence of various religious legislations on the way of organizing the circulation of books and the selection of texts used in convents, and to what extent they influenced communication practices and the canon of literature. Hence, attempts were made to determine which texts were essential for the functioning of the monasteries and their structures, and which were intended for the local or supra–local community. Therefore, various types of works were subjected to analysis: the religious as well as utilitarian, literary, occasional, scientific works, etc. The objective was to determine the extent to which religious orders carried out specific tasks for their environment, and to what extent in the religious culture was the specificity of multicultural and multi–religious the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, especially in the tradition and practice of creating and using literature against the background of complementary forms of using the word was visible.
The communication perspective, in which writing and text are seen in the context of the sacrum, constituted the research axis. Their significance in the context of spiritual values was strengthened by pointing to the role in shaping and maintaining the identity of groups constituted by faith. The specificity of communication in these environments can be seen at many levels, for example, in the religious order environments we do not notice any conflict between the oral and the written, but rather we observe their coexistence, and likewise there is no definite antinomy between religiosity and the high and popular culture.
The perception of monasteries as important and permanent elements of social and religious life as well as vital factors of cultural changes allowed made it possible to register a lot of regularities that enrich the knowledge about the book culture of the communities of religious orders, verifying the stereotypical and often derogatory assessments related to the role of writing and reading in church environments. The religious communities integrate not only the same axiological system, but also similarly shaped communication competences resulting from a specific religious formation and implementation of the repertoire of communication practices that apply in these environments. They existed not only as isolated church institutions (constituted in this way by held values as well as institutional structure), but also as groups functioning in society which were linked – at the local level and in a broad perspective – by specific dependency models as well as formal and informal, public and private, institutional and private contacts.
Literature “existing” in monasteries testifies to the spiritual culture of monks, shows intellectual formation, undertaken literature, scientific, and publishing work as well as the organization of an individual workshop, including the formation and subsequent use in pastoral and education of the texts of the collected canon. The formation of the reading choices of religious orders were influenced by the recommendations of the church authorities, they were also shaped by social expectations as well as by individual preferences and practices associated with the text being created or read.
With the circles of the religious order, texts representing essentially several thematic groups were used. Their typology should be built while paying attention to the requirements related to activities in the public sphere, in relation to a specific social environment, as well as taking into account the expectations of the adopted form of vitae christiana. Historical book collections of the religious orders constituted of various collections, dominated by various types of religious, philosophical, and theological literature; however, also rich in historical, legal, medical, fine, parenetic, and school literature. An analysis of their operation showed, on the one hand, organizational diversity, while on the other, a close dependence of the thematic profile on the tasks assigned to the community as well as the location and social environment of a particular convent or the diverse interests and needs of the people working in it.
The analysis covered not just the normative documentation alone, but also strictly preserved library records, such as registered provenance records as well as various reading certificates and sources that made it possible to distinguish the author and reader, the archivist, and the librarian or the collector and the bibliophile in within the religious order. It was pointed out that of significance was the comprehensive recognition of the internal reality of these institutions to draw conclusion on the reading activity, reception of specific content, intellectual interests, and the intensity of the influence of these groups in the broader context of the culture model.
The described manifestations of book culture in religious environments point to the great importance of both intellectus et scientia as well as fide etspiritus in their lives and prove how literature contributed to preserving the identity of the clergy and to building traditions as well as to significant cultural and civilization–related role in Old Polish society. In this perspective, it turns out that writing and reading, hence the text, document and the book, constitute immortal witnesses of events not only in the so–called chronological reality, but also in the history of the long and stable duration of the religious orders in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.