XVIII amžiaus studijos / The Eighteenth Century Studies

The article discusses one of the earliest images of Vilnius University, which was engraved and printed in 1781 in two publications from the Vilnius Academy printing house. Copies of this image are nowadays found in modern historical literature and in various types of printed material (on book covers, diplomas and posters). However, until now, there has been no attempt to examine the original image as a historical source. The uniqueness and relevance of this engraving are determined by the fact that it was created during a crucial period in the university’s reform by the National Education Commission. The aim of the article is to identify which elements of the image of Vilnius University are based on reality, and which represent the unfulfilled ideas of the reformers. Additionally, the article raises questions about the authorship of the engraving, the relationship with the book in which it appeared, and its reuse in later publications. A comprehensive bibliographical description of two publications in which the engraving was printed is provided in the article’s appendix.

This article presents an aspect of 18th-century Vilnius history that has received little attention in historiography – the situation of beggars in urban society: the legal regulation of begging is analysed, looking at how it changed during the period, the opportunities of beggars to participate in religious life in Vilnius, the necessity of beggars for the rest of urban society and how the situation of this social class had changed in Vilnius towards the end of the century. Referencing mostly normative and other sources compiled by members of the Catholic Church, the author shows that the situation of beggars in the city was significantly transformed at the very end of the century – before then, the role of beggars in Vilnius society could be considered as typical of traditional medieval and early modern period Christian communities.

This article uses the last wills and testaments of 18th-century Vilnius burghers to analyse the degree of attention they paid to the education of their children, presenting their attitudes to this issue prior to the establishment of the Commission of National Education and after 1773. The author attempts to gain insight to the changes that occurred and to assess whether Enlightenment ideas and the founding of the Commission of National Education had an influence on the attitudes of Vilnius’ inhabitants on the education of their offspring, and whether the last wills and testaments from the last quarter of the 18th century dedicated more attention to children’s education.

The handwritten diary of Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł (1702–1762), also known as Rybeńko, a source familiar to researchers dealing with the history of the 18th century in various fields, is certainly extremely interesting. The diary is kept in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (Archiwum Główny Akt Dawnych w Warszawie, AGAD) in the Radziwiłł Archive collection (section VI, sign. II-80). Rybeńko was one of the richest magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the time, and this is evidenced by the numerous and extensive estates he owned in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He owned about 20 towns, and more than 300 villages, which he inherited from his father and from his father-in-law Janusz Antoni Wiśniowiecki. In view of the above, and concerning the fact that Michal Kazimierz Radziwiłł held one of the highest senatorial offices (from 1744 he was governor of Vilnius, so he was formally in charge of the city that he knew well), did he include information about the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the pages of his diary? Being a politically active man who was in possession of such extensive estates, he was constantly on the road (pursuing at the same time a variety of political, economic and social goals), which both his wives complained about. He stayed in many cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including the capital of Lithuania. Therefore, this article has been written with the intention of presenting the diary as a source for researching one of the most important centres of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at that time. An attempt is made to consider the circumstances in which entries appear in the diary, whether the prince visited the city regularly or only occasionally, and whether the entries in the diary are systematic reports, or if they are ‘second hand’ information. Finally, the question should be raised as to what type of data was recorded by Rybeńko in the context of Vilnius, and to what extent it can be useful in the study of the city’s history. It also seems crucial to consider the question of what image of the Lithuanian capital emerges from the governor’s records.

In 1772, the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth occurred. A few outraged English and French pamphleteers grabbed a pen to defend its cause. The same year, John Lind released his Letters Concerning the Present State of Poland. In 1773, Simon Linguet published his Considérations politiques et philosophiques, sur les affaires présentes du Nord, et plus particulièrement sur celles de Pologne. In 1775, the Marquis de Caraccioli released La Pologne telle qu’elle a été, telle qu’elle est, telle qu’elle sera. This article aims at defining how these authors’ reactions to the first dismemberment of the Commonwealth contributed to the nascence of public opinion in the last quarter of the 18th century, thus accelerating the advent of a shared sentiment of European membership. The study is intended as a contribution to our knowledge of the reception in European public opinion of the partition of Poland-Lithuania. The article encompasses: I) the emergence of public opinion in 18th-century Britain and France; II) Caraccioli, Linguet and Lind: three different personalities devoted to the same cause; III) combating prejudices: Restoring the truth on serfdom in the Commonwealth, and the dissidents affair; IV) ensuring support for a king struggling alone against hostile neighbouring powers.