The Lithuanian Statutes

The Lithuanian Statutes of 1529, 1566 and 1588 are among the defining legal and political monuments of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. We are interested not only in their history as texts, but in the surviving physical objects themselves: manuscript copies, early printed editions, provenance records and copies that may have passed through private libraries.

The First Statute circulated in manuscript and only a very small number of copies are known today. The Second Statute also survives through a manuscript tradition, while the Third Statute entered print in Vilnius, including the early Cyrillic editions associated with the Mamonich press. Individual copies can carry highly significant evidence of ownership, use and movement between noble, family and institutional collections.

What we are seeking

• First Lithuanian Statute (1529): any original manuscript witness, fragment, historically recorded copy, or material that could help trace a copy whose present location is unknown.
• Second Lithuanian Statute (1566): original manuscript copies in Ruthenian, Polish or Latin, including copies from historic family or estate libraries and examples not represented in the standard modern record.
• Third Lithuanian Statute (1588): early printed editions, with particular interest in the earliest Vilnius/Mamonich Cyrillic printings and copies with important provenance, annotations or historic bindings.
• Provenance material: old photographs, estate inventories, auction catalogues, library catalogues, inscriptions, bookplates, correspondence or family records that identify a previously untraced copy.

Why information matters

Known copies are concentrated in institutional collections, but historically many Statutes passed through private noble, scholarly and family libraries. Some copies disappeared from documented view. We therefore invite contact from owners, descendants, librarians, researchers, antiquarian booksellers and anyone who may know of a manuscript or early printed copy in private hands or in an uncatalogued collection.

All serious enquiries may be handled privately and confidentially. We are happy to review photographs or provenance information without any obligation to sell.