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- LIBRARIES. In Lithuania the
earliest collections of books were centered in monasteries and their
schools. Such libraries are encountered from the beginning of
the 15th century, and until the 16th century were rather small. In
Vilnius the largest library belonged to the Franciscan Order and
comprised 104 works. From the middle of the 16th century more books
began to appear on estates; they were brought back by the nobility who
had studied in Western Europe. The oldest extant book inventory dates
from 1510 and pertains to the library of Albertas Gostautas,
chancellor of Lithuania. The library consisted of 77 books in Latin,
Old Church Slavic, Polish, and Czech, the majority of which were
manuscripts. In the same period King Sigismund the Old began
collecting a library in his palace in Vilnius. The library was greatly
expanded by his son Sigismund Augustus, who sent personal agents to
buy books in Western Europe. This library, housed in Vilnius' Low
Castle, numbered about 4,000 volumes, some of which were quite rare
for that period; it was larger than the royal library in Cracow.
Sigismund Augustus bequeathed his library to the Jesuit College of
Vilnius, which also took over the Vilnius diocesan chapter library.
- When the Jesuit College of Vilnius
became an academy (in fact a university) in 1579, its library became
the central one in Lithuania; it was enlarged by donations from the
nobility During the Russian attack on Vilnius in 1655, the academy's
library was transported to Konigsberg, East Prussia, from where a part
of the collection was confiscated by the Swedes and taken to the
University of Uppsala. In the later half of the 18th century, the
library of the academy numbered 18,000 volumes, which included the
large collection donated by King Stanislas Augustus (1765-95). At the
time when the academy formally became a university in 1803, its
library consisted mostly of theological and philosophical works (80%),
mainly in Latin. By 1831 the library had changed to contain literature
(50%) and works in medicine, the natural sciences, and social studies
(30%); 35% of the books were in French. When the Russians closed the
university in 1832, the library contained 52,000 volumes; of these ca
10,000 largely old manuscripts and Works of philosophy, law, history
and mathematics, were transported to the University of Kiev; the
others were divided between the Theological Academy and the Academy of
Medicine, both of which had been established in Vilnius. In 1842 the
Academy of Medicine was closed and its library was taken to the
University of Kharkov. In 1844 the Theological Academy and its library
were relocated in St. Petersburg, capital of imperial Russia. The
University of Vilnius Library had been the most important in Lithuania
during the 16th-19th centuries.
- Besides the University of Vilnius, other
larger libraries of the 16th-19th
- centuries belonged to the Franciscan
friaries in Vilnius (15,000 volumes) and Kretinga (3,000 vols.), which
also housed 40 rare incunabulas; the Dominican friary in Gardinas
(10,000 vols.); the Synod of the Evangelical Reformed Church in
Vilnius, which safeguarded important documents of the beginning of the
Reformation in Lithuania; the Jesuit College in Kražiai (3,000
vols.); the Protestant Gymnasium Illustre in Kedainiai (30,000
vols.), damaged during the Swedish invasion of 1655; the prince
Radvilas family in Nesvyzius (ca 20,000 vols.); and to Canon John C.
Gintila, which included a valuable collection of books in the Hebrew
language. None of these libraries have survived in their entirety.
- Many libraries were harmed by the
repressive measures initiated by the Russian government after the
1863-64 uprising. When the government closed monasteries and their
schools and confiscated estates, large numbers of books were lost; the
remainder were brought to the former University of Vilnius. There the
Vilnius Public Library was opened in 1867. It took over the libraries
of the Medical Society and the Archaeological Commission, some 40,000
volumes. In 1877 the Vilnius Public Library had 257,437 volumes, of
which the majority were Russian books and only 300 were Lithuanian.
From 1903 the library began to receive Lithuanian publications printed
in the United States. Before the German occupation of Vilnius in1915,
the Russians carried off the more valuable books and manuscripts. At
that time the Vilnius Public Library contained 310,000 volumes.
- During the Polish rule of Vilnius from
1920-39, the university was revived and was placed in charge of the
public library. In a decade the library increased to 450,000 volumes.
Several large libraries functioned under the auspices of societies and
private individuals. The Jewish Strashun Library, established in 1892,
contained 40,000 volumes, including the most renowned collection in
Europe of old books and manuscripts in Hebrew. The Polish Wroblewski
Library consisted of 180,000 books, over 3,000 manuscripts, 18,000
documents, 1,600 maps, and the sole collection in Lithuania of
Freemasonic insignia and documents. The Wroblewski Library served the
Institute of East European Studies, which had collected much
documentary material on
- the Soviet Union. The Polish
Learned Society library and museum had over 80,000 books, the majority
of which concerned Lithuanian history. The Lithuanian Learned Society (Lietuviu
Mokslo Draugija), established in 1907, was the first library
designated solely for Lithuanian studies; its foundation was the
private collection of Jonas
- Basanavicius, and it eventually
contained 42,000 volumes (see Lithuanian Learned S'ociety).
- One of the older libraries (6,420
volumes) in Kaunas belonged to the Theological Seminary, transferred
from Varniai in 1864. During the period of independent Lithuania, it
together with the library of the Kaunas diocesan chapter reached
33,000 volumes. This combined library housed the important archives of
Bishop Motiejus Valancius. When the University of Kaunas began to
function in 1922, a completely new main library with separate faculty
libraries was instituted; by 1939 it numbered 300,000 volumes. A
Central Military Library was also organized, whose 105 branches
contained 180,000 volumes of modern military literature. At first,
public libraries and reading rooms were rounded by private
individuals, societies and town councils. The Central National Library
(ValstybSs CentrinS Bitilioteka) was established in 1919 in
Kaunas; by1939 it had 135 branches throughout the country and 70,000
volumes. There existed also a wide network of school
- libraries (2,316) and those of
'organizations, largely youth (2,075). The
- largest of the libraries maintained by
town councils was the Vincas Kudirka Library (14,000 vols.) in Kaunas;
special facilities were erected for it. The Marian Fathers' monastery
in Marijampole had over 50,000 volumes, which included a large
collection of works pertaining to Lithuanian studies. Immediately
prior to World War II the library of the Institute of Lithuanian
Studies was being organized in Kaunas; its purpose was to amass
specialized literature and documents for the study of Lithuanian
history and culture. Over 2,000 volumes were collected.
- During the first Soviet occupation in
1940-41, libraries in Lithuania were affected by the nationalization
process and by the adaptation to Marxist ideological principles. All
libraries were ordered to "purge" themselves of socalled
bourgeois literature: patriotic, religious, political and, in a broad
sense, "anti-soviet". Schools, societies, and smaller
libraries had to relinquish such literature to the administration
authorities; the larger libraries had to take such books off the
shelves. A special library-purging authority functioned in Vilnius; it
inspected books and sent undesirable volumes to paper factories. This
destruction of books was halted by the outbreak of the Russo-German
War on June 22, 1941. During the German occupation of 1941-1944, a
different ideological line was taken, the libraries had to purge their
- shelves of Soviet and Semitic
literature. The old Hebrew publications
- from the Strashun Library in
Vilnius were transported to Germany, all other Jewish library books
were destroyed. The library of the Evangelical Synod, with its rare
old books and manuscripts, was demolished by fire during the second
Soviet army invasion of Vilnius in 1944.
- After World War II under Soviet rule,
its library regulating principles,
- inaugurated during the first occupation,
were renewed and extended. Already in 1940-41 libraries had been
nationalized and united. Books from monasteries, estates, and
societies had been brought to the larger town libraries. The main
concentration point was the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius,
established on Jan. 16, 1941. It took over the Wroblewski Library, the
libraries of the Lithuanian and Polish Learned Societies, the library
of the Theological Seminary in Vilnius, the Military Library in
Kaunas, and others. Thus 380,000 books and periodicals and ca 15,000
manuscripts were concentrated in one place. In 1956 the significant
and renowned archives of the Vilnius diocesan chapter, which had been
hidden in the Cathedral during the war, were taken over. The Academy
library at present contains over 100,000 old, rare publications,
including 100 incunabulas; 200,000 manuscripts, including ca 1,500
parchment documents; over 1,200 maps; and a large collection of old
engravings and photographs. The institutes of the Academy have
separate libraries, of which the most important is the library of the
Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature. This library contains
over 70,000 books and28,000 manuscripts, which largely concern early
Lithuanian literature. Its foundation is the library of the Lithuanian
Learned Society.
- The University of Vilnius library
reached over two million Volumes after World War II; it gained mostly
in Soviet Russian publications. Its oldest books and manuscripts
(14th-15th centuries) date from the earlier era of the old University
of Vilnius. Several books have survived from. the library of Sigismund
Augustus. Archives of former estates, court documents, a large
collection of maps from the 16th-18th centuries, and much iconographic
material were given to the university library. Some of the old books
and manuscripts, which had been transported to Russia in 1915 and 1939
were returned to Lithuania after the war.
- One of the largest libraries is the
Library of the Republic (Republikinė biblioteka) in Vilnius.
It is the same as the National Library, which functioned in Kaunas
from 1919; in 1963 it was relocated to its new building in Vilnius. In
1970 the library had four million catalogued items: books, journals,
newspapers, manuscripts, microfilms, and illustrative materials. A
large collection (over 100,000 items) consists of literature about
Lithuania in different languages. The library maintains ties with 36
countries and publishes the monthly journal Bibliotekų Darbai
(The Work of Libraries). The registration and collection of Lithuanian
publications througliout the world is one of the functions of the Hall
of Books (Knygų Rūmai), established in Vilnius in 1945 as a
scholastic institution of bibliography. It has amassed over a million
publications; it publishes the monthly Spaudos Metraštis (The
Press Annual). Academic, art, and educational institutions maintain
separate libraries.
- There were 2,328 public libraries
in1970; the majority of these were established after World War II. The
new libraries abound in Soviet ideological and propagandistic
literature in Lithuanian and Russian. The public libraries are
uniformly supplied from one book distribution center, which determines
what is suitable and necessary for the people to read. Since the
contents of all publications are still severely censored, any work
which is alien to the Soviet regime in any way
- is not allowed in public libraries. The
pre-war and contemporary foreign literature found in the large
libraries is available to a select clientele who must gain special
permission.
-
- Bibl.: K. Jablonskis.
"Alberto Gostauto biblioteka," V.V.U. Mokslinės
bibliotekos metraštis, IV, Vilnius, 1911; K. Hartleb, BMjoteka
Zygmunta Augusta, Lwow, 1928; M. Brensztejn, Bibljoteka
uniwersyiecka w Wilnie do roku 1832, Wilno, 1922; A. I.
Milovidov, Iz istorii Vilcnakoi -publichnoi biblioteki,
Vilno, 1911; L. Vladimirovas, Vilniaus universiteto biblioteka,
Vilnius, 1958; A. Ivaškevičius, LTSR Mokslų Akademijos
Centrinė biblioteka, Vilnius. 1959.
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- Text from the ENCYCLOPEDIA LITUANICA I-VI.
Boston, 1970-1978
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