The Lithuanian Metrica: History and Research

by Arturas Dubonis, Darius Antanavicius, Raimonda Ragauskiene, Ramune Smigelskyte-Stukiene

Overview

This volume analyzes the history of the Lithuanian Metrica—the chancellery books of the Lithuanian grand duke—from the formation of its books in the mid-fifteenth century until now. It reveals how the first Metrica books emerged in the second half of the fifteenth century, discussing the titles given to them in different periods in history, and explains why the Lithuanian Metrica should be considered the state archive of early Lithuania. Material hitherto unknown in academic literature about the fate of the Lithuanian Metrica at the end of the eighteenth century, in the last years of the existence of the joint Polish-Lithuanian state, is also revealed in this account. The book dedicates a great deal of attention to the history of the publication and research of the documents and books of the Lithuanian Metrica, which are now kept in Moscow, Russia, as a historical source.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644693773
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Series:	Lithuanian Studies without Borders
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Artūras Dubonis is a senior research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. His research interests are Lithuanian society and sources about its history from the thirteenth to the first half of the seventeenth centuries, and the Lithuanian Metrica. He has published several books of the Lithuanian Metrica and three monographs.

Darius Antanavičius is a senior research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. The focus of his research lies in editing Neo-Latin authors dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries concerning the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He is the author of numerous publications and discoveries in this field.

Raimonda Ragauskienė is a senior research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. Her research interests are the social, political and local history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries, especially the history of the Biržai-Dubingiai line of the noble Radziwiłł family and the Lithuanian Metrica. She has published nine monographs and several books of the Lithuanian Metrica.

Ramunė Šmigelskytė-Stukienė is a senior research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. The focus of her research is the early modern history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, especially the late eighteenth-century political history and development of political institutions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. She is an author and editor of several scholarly books.

Artūras Dubonis is a senior research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. His research interests are Lithuanian society and sources about its history from the thirteenth to the first half of the seventeenth centuries, and the Lithuanian Metrica. He has published several books of the Lithuanian Metrica and three monographs.
Darius Antanavičius is a senior research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. The focus of his research lies in editing Neo-Latin authors dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries concerning the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He is the author of numerous publications and discoveries in this field.
Raimonda Ragauskienė is a senior research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. Her research interests are the social, political and local history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries, especially the history of the Biržai-Dubingiai line of the noble Radziwiłł family and the Lithuanian Metrica. She has published nine monographs and several books of the Lithuanian Metrica.
Ramunė Šmigelskytė-Stukienė is a senior research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History. The focus of her research is the early modern history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, especially the late eighteenth-century political history and development of political institutions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. She is an author and editor of several scholarly books.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface

1. The Lithuanian Metrica: The Concept, Term, and Archival Characteristics

2. The Grand Issue of the History of the Lithuanian Metrica—the Appearance of the Books (until the Late Sixteenth Century)

3. The Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Metrica in the Fifteenth–First Half of the Sixteenth Centuries

4. The Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Metrica in the Mid-Sixteenth–First Quarter of the Seventeenth Centuries

5. The Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its Staff from the 1620s to the Eighteenth Century

6. Structure, Handling, and Control Issues Regarding the Lithuanian Metrica

7. Storage of the Lithuanian Metrica: Balancing State Interests and Personal Whims

8. The Eighteenth Century—a Time of Journeys: The Lithuanian Metrica between Vilnius, Warsaw, and Saint Petersburg

9. In Foreign Hands

10. Research and Publishing

Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The book provides an outline of history and research of the Lithuanian Metrica, an important part of archival inheritance of this state, comprising documents from the late fourteenth to the late eighteenth century. The English edition makes the results of the research and publication of the Lithuanian Metrica in the last decades, mainly by the Lithuanian scholars, as well as by their Belarusian, Russian, Polish and Ukrainian colleagues, available to a wide readership.”

—Sergey Polekhov, Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow

“Some books have to be written despite the challenge. The present volume, written by four outstanding Lithuanian scholars, has been awaited for years among academics. Despite its title, the volume offers more than a mere history of Metrica and a study of its content. Concise, yet accessible, the book comprehensively presents what Metrica used to be and what it is today. This monograph also provides insight into how the office of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania functioned. In addition, the study is a kind of guide to the types and content of individual volumes of Metrica. Although the work clarifies many of the doubts present to date, it also paves the way for further research. This subject matter and the research presented here are essential knowledge to those dealing with the history of Central and Eastern Europe.”

—Lidia Korczak, Jagiellonian University, Krakow