VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY Moreno Bonda History of Lithuanian Historiography DIDACTICAL GUIDELINES Kaunas, 2013 Reviewed by Prof. habil. dr. Egidijus Aleksandravičius Approved by the Department of History of the Faculty of Humanities at Vytautas Magnus University on 30 November 2012 (Protocol No. 3–2) Recommended for printing by the Council of the Faculty of Humanities of Vytau- tas Magnus University on 28 December 2012 (Protocol No. 8–6) Edited by UAB “Lingvobalt” Publication of the didactical guidelines is supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Project title: “Renewal and Internationalization of Bachelor Degree Programmes in History, Ethnology, Philosophy and Political Science” (project No.: VP1-2.2-ŠMM-07-K-02-048) © Moreno Bonda, 2013 ISBN 978-9955-21-363-5 © Vytautas Magnus University, 2013 Table of Contents About Human Universals (as a Preface) . 5 I. Historiography and Hermeneutics: Definition of the Field . 10 Literature . 22 II. History as “Natural Histories” . 24 Nicolaus Hussovianus’ A Poem about the Size, Ferocity, and the Hunting of the Bison 28; Adam Schroeter’s About the Lithuanian River Nemunas 30; Sigismund von Herberstein’s Notes on Muscovite Affairs (as a conclusion) 31 Literature . 32 III. Proto-Historiography: Annals, Chronicles, State Official His to- riography and Letters . 34 III. 1. Annals and Chronicles . 36 Jan Długosz’s Annals or Chronologies of the Illustrious Kingdom of Poland 39; Peter of Dusburg’s Chronicles of the Prussian Lands 41; Wigand of Marburg’s New Prussian Chronicle 43; The Annals of Degučiai 44; Other Chronicles (for a History of the Historiography about Lithuania) 46 III. 2. Official State Historiography . 48 The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania 50; The Chronicle of Lithuania and Samogitia 51; The Bychowiec Chronicle 52 III. 3. Epistles . 57 Gediminas’ Epistles 58; Vytautas’ Epistles 58; Algirdas’ Greek Letter (as a conclusion) 60 Literature . 62 IV. Universal Histories, Specula, and Hagiographies . 64 The Life of Vaišvilkas 67; Stanisław Sarnicki’s Annals, or About the Deeds of Polish and Lithuanians in Eight books 68; Nicolaus Husso- vianus’ Life and Deeds of St. Hyacinth 71; Gregorius Svencicius’ Life of Saint Casimir 72; Piotr Skarga’s Lives of the Saints 72; Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz’s Life of Laurentius Bartilius 74 Literature . 75 V. The Ethnographic Historiography . 76 Michalo Lituanus’ About the habits of Tatars, Lithuanians and Muscovites 81; Simonas Daukantas’ The Manners of the ancient Lithuanians, Highlanders and Samogitians 83; Johannes Łasicki’s Concerning the Gods of Samogitians, other Sarmatians and false 3 Christians 84; Theodor Lepner’s The Prussian Lithuanians 85; Maciej Miechowita’s About the Two Sarmatias 86; Johann Bohemme’s, The Habits, Laws and Rituals of all the People 87; Alexander Guagnini’s Description of Sarmatic Europe 89; Guillebert de Lannoy’s Journeys and Embassies 89; Nicholas Christopher Radziwiłł’s Journey to the Holy Land, Syria and Egypt 90 Literature . 95 VI. History as Contemporary History . 96 A Lithuanian Knight’s Livonian War Ten Years Deeds 99; Laurentius Bojer’s The Battle of Kirkholm 100; Elijas Pilgrimovijus’ Panegyric for Christoph Radziwiłł 101; Elijas Pilgrimovijus’ Account of Leo Sapieha’s Great Delegation to Moscow 102; Prančiskus Gradovskis’ Ode to the Illustrious Christoph Radziwiłł’s Expedition to Muscovy 108; Mikalo- jus Kazimieras Šemeta’s The Battle of Ochmatov 109; Mikalojus Kaz- imieras Šemeta’s Relation about the Beginning and Conclusion of the Swedish Protectorate in Samogitia 110; Nicolaus Hussovianus’ New and Outstanding Victory over the Turks in the Month of July 111; Al- bert Wijuk-Kojałowicz’s About the Events of 1648 and 1649 Against the Rebel Zaporozhian Cossacks 111; Albrycht-Stanisław Radziwiłł’s Mem- ories about the Polish Events between 1632 and 1656 113; Jonas Eisman- tas’ Threnody about the Fire of Vilnius 114; Justus Ludwik Decjusz’s A Book about the Time of King Sigismund (as a conclusion) 115 Literature . 117 VII. History as the History of Men: Fasti, Gesta and Biographies . 118 Joannis Vislicensis’ The Prussian War 121; Jonas Rivockis’ Portrait of a Great Hero or Leo Sapieha Elegiac Description 122; Jonas Rivockis’ Life of Simonas Rudnicki 123; Joannes Radvanus’ Radvilias 124; Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz’s Radziwił Chronicle 124; Boguslaw Radziwiłł’s autobiography (and biography) 125; Maciej Stryjkowski’s The Polish, Lithuanian, Samogitian and All Russia Chronicle 125 Literature . 128 VIII. The Transition towards the Erudite Historiography . 129 Marcin Kromer’s About the Origin and Deeds of the Polish in 30 books 132; Augustine Rotundus’ Short History of the Lithuanian Dukes 134; Al- bert Wijuk Kojałowicz’s Short History of the Church in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 137; Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz’s History of Lithuania 139 Literature . 142 Register of the Historians (until early 18th century) . 143 Index of Names . 152 4 About Human Universals (as a Preface) This student handbook has been produced on the occasion of an innovation project. It was meant to provide Vytautas Magnus Uni- versity students with English textbooks to be used during lessons taught in English. In turn, this innovation aims to offer Lithuanian students the opportunity to improve their linguistic competence indirectly while studying other, non-language related, subjects: en- riching their specialist vocabulary; getting acquainted with English academic writing; and reflecting upon sectorial terminology. In this respect, the present handbook should be particularly useful if ad- opted in conjunction with a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) teaching attitude. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons behind the linguistic and etymologic approach emerging in several sections of this work. Yet, the focus of this textbook is the history of historiography, not the language itself: this handbook is intended as a reference (or a sort of catalogue) for students attending courses in Lithuanian historiography. Additionally, the opportunity to produce an English textbook about Lithuanian historiography has been understood by the author as a stimulus to introduce foreign students (more and more often vis- iting this university) to local historiography. Conscious of the lack of sources accessible to an international audience, we printed this work with the intention of offering a systematic reference book: an easy- to-consult reasoned catalogue of historical works. It should serve as both an introduction to in-depth research and as an overview of Lithuanian history of historiography for those who are just prepar- ing to take the exam. Consequently, we did not aim at the introduction of innovative theories or at presenting new sources and documents not yet studied. Rather, we tried to be systematic (as far as the pragmatic limits of writing allowed). Nonetheless, cognizant of the didactical function of such a handbook, we opted for a pretty unorthodox organization of the contents and a transnational (comparative) outlook on local historiography precisely to convey a methodological precept and to rectify two misleading persuasions. 5 History of Lithuanian Historiography Methodologically, we believe that only a comparative approach can make evident both the peculiarities of a work and the manifes- tations in it of universal trends. Likewise, being the historical con- science a manifestation of the spirit – a human-universal, the inten- tion to study a historical work as an end in itself is fallacious. Rather, every historical work should be studied, as expounded by Erich Au- erbach (with reference to literature), as the concrete manifestation of the universal. Finally, we intend to prevent students from believing that abstract categorizations can actually represent and frame intel- lectual expressions. That is, we want to remove the erroneous idea that a medieval historiography existed with its annals, and then the Humanistic one substituted it only to evolve, after some centuries, into the historiographic style of Romanticism. Students (and, some- times, even teachers) got used to this evolutionistic didactic at school and tend to put everything in categories, which are often perceived as concrete receptacles beginning with a date or a name and con- cluding with another. First, to better illustrate the concept of the evolutionistic didac- tic, we can consider the historiographic genre of annals. Speaking about medieval historiography (abstract category), Zenonas Ivinskis individuates its specific manifestation in annals and chronicles and specifies, “Chronicles evolved from annals mainly written in mon- asteries. […] The accounts included in the annals expanded and be- came independent histories, that is, chronicles.” These concepts are absolutely correct. Nonetheless, if presented in this form, this infor- mation induces a student to think that a) the Middle Ages are a peri- od of time rather than a 19th century values interpretation; b) annals are typical medieval expressions of history-writing; c) after a certain period of time historians abandoned the annalistic form in favour of chronicles. On the contrary, the reality is much less schematic than this. First of all, the concept of the Middle Ages differs in many re- spects from country to country, historical schools, etc. Second, the historiographic form of annals was already typical of the Mesopota- mian civilizations 5000 years ago; it was common in Ancient Greece; and it was