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.

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.