XVIII amžiaus studijos / The Eighteenth Century Studies

On the map of schools in 18th-century Vilnius, a prominent place was occupied by the Vilnius Academy, which during the times of the Commission of National Education was called the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and after the loss of independence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Vilnius Main School. In addition to the university, there were also schools providing secondary and elementary education, as well as educational institutions. The paper is an attempt to look at the possibilities of education in Vilnius during the period of the Commission of National Education and in the years after the Commission, until the reform of Alexander I in 1803.

The article presents a discussion of the state of the city of Vilnius, its buildings, people, disasters and memorable events following the disasters that swept through in the beginning of the 18th century. The start of the Great Northern War in 1700 (1700–1721), the campaigns of the Lithuanian, Russian and Swedish armies and the plague epidemic that followed the war (1710) severely affected the city of Vilnius and its inhabitants. Despite the devastation and disasters, Vilnius was still the most important city in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania where the most important political affairs in the land were decided. The article is mainly based on the letters of Maciej Józef Ancuta, the suffragan of the Bishop of Vilnius, to the Chancellor of Lithuania, Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł.

The article deals with our research on the Ruthenian documents of Alexander Jagiellon and Sigismund the Old, the grand dukes of Lithuania, which cover the whole period of the reign of these rulers (1492–1544) and are kept in Vilnius. In the course of empirical research, we registered 142 such documents; the main data about them are represented in the annex to the article. Meanwhile, in the main part of the article we try to identify the scribes who were responsible for the preparation of the documents, to identify the documents that were written by the scribes who signed them, and to discuss the palaeographic features of all the documents.

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.

Kad būtų vertinamas politinėje scenoje, didikas privalėjo turėti atitinkamą rezidenciją Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės sostinėje. Savininko poreikius ir ambicijas atliepiantys rūmai atliko ne tik reprezentacinį vaidmenį, bet ir buvo vieta, apie kurią telkėsi giminės bei didikų klientų gyvenimas. Be to, įsiliedami į gyvą miesto organizmą rūmai tapdavo jo tvaria puošmena, neretai demonstruodavo jų savininkų tikėjimą ir politinę poziciją. Šiame straipsnyje sintetiškai aptariama XVII a. Vilniaus rūmų architektūra tiek tipiškų, tiek miesto įvaizdį formavusių originalių sprendimų kontekste. Taip pat verta atkreipti dėmesį į Vilniaus topografiją – labiau ar mažiau prestižines vietas ir priemiesčius, ypač Antakalnį.