Lithuanian Metrica
Encyclopedia
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
(GDL). Maintained systematically since the 2nd half the 15th century, metrica consisted, initially and primarily, of the copies of the documents issued by the Grand Duke, Lithuanian Council of Lords
Lithuanian Council of Lords
The Lithuanian Council of Lords was the main permanent institution of central government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania active in its capital city of Vilnius....
, and Seimas
Seimas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Seimas was an early parliament in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was active from 1445 to 1569, when it was officially abolished by the Union of Lublin. The Seimas was an irregular gathering of the Lithuanian nobility, called as needed by the Grand Duke or during an interregnum the Lithuanian...
.
The Metrica also included some important externally originated documents (like translations of the issues (yarlyks) of the Crimea Khans
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
, copies of the Muscovy diplomatic documents etc.), the office-keeping documental materials (like registers of acts, inventories of the Metrica itself etc.) The selection of the classes of the documents included in the Metrica had increased since the 2nd half 15th – 16th century and even more so in the 17–18th centuries, extending to include the copies of transcripts of diplomatic correspondence, charters of privileges, wills, verdicts, judicial decrees, even certain kinds of private correspondence, e.g., received by the official persons. Sometimes, the external and thematically not quite related collections of the documents had also been referred to as the part of the Metrica, the word Metrica here to be understood as the State Archive. The documents of the Metrica were to be preserved interminably.
Effectively, the Metrica had become the core of the Archive of the Grand Duke, later the core of the Main State Archive of the GDL, serving the notifying (judicial-registrative), judicial, referential functions. It had been the source of the authoritative official documents (copies of copies). The Metrica developed parallel to and on the model of the Crown Metrica of Poland.
Nowadays, over 600 (estimated) books of the Lithuanian Metrica still exist.
Names
The word metrica generates from for archive, from for office book.The first historical names of the collection were metrics, books of metrica, metrica. Since the end of the 16th – beginning of the 17th century, the full official name was Metrica of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This would be the most appropriate scientific name. The dub Lithuanian Metrica had been occasionally used in the local office books (by analogy with the Crown Metrica of Poland), since the mid-17th century the dub had consolidated its position in the documents of the Warsaw Archives, later in the Archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg, then in the 19–20th centuries Russian, Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian historiographies. The name Lithuanian Metrica is till now traditionally used in the Western publications of the Metrica.
The name Lithuanian Metrica is also used in reference to some contemporary archival collections, including some of the materials of the Chancellery of the GDL (together with other unrelated materials), chiefly in Russia custody.
Languages
The prevailing language of the documents of the 15th and the most of the 16th century Metrica had been the Ruthenian languageRuthenian language
Ruthenian, or Old Ruthenian , is a term used for the varieties of Eastern Slavonic spoken in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth....
. Alternatively, the prevailing use of the Ruthenian language in the Metrica is extended up to the mid-17th century. The documents, concerned with the Western Europe, had been issued in Latin, occasionally in German. The documents, concerned with the Roman Catholic Church, had been issued in Latin. See also naming of the Ruthenian language.
Since the late 16th – early 17th century, the number of the documents composed in Polish and in Latin, had been steadily increasing, until the complete elimination of the Ruthenian from the office use in the GDL, and further official ban on the Ruthenian for the official use (1696). The language of the 17–18th century Metrica is mostly Polish and partly Latin.
History
State archives were begun in the 13th-century Kingdom of LithuaniaKingdom of Lithuania
The Kingdom of Lithuania was a Lithuanian monarchy which existed from 1251 to roughly 1263. King Mindaugas was the first and only crowned king of Lithuania. The status of a kingdom was lost after Mindaugas' assassination in 1263. Other monarchs of Lithuania are referred to as Grand Dukes, even...
. Diplomacy was greatly increased under the rule of Gediminas. During the various wars, floods, and city fires that followed, many official documents were lost. Some were impossible to trace, if these documents had not been duplicated or otherwise copied. A growing need to reproduce these documents later, and the mounting number of edicts, wills, court verdicts etc., determined the evolution of the Lithuanian Metrica.
The Lithuanian Metrica was stored in the Trakai Island Castle
Trakai Island Castle
Trakai Island Castle is an island castle located in Trakai, Lithuania on an island in Lake Galvė. The castle is sometimes referred to as "Little Marienburg". The construction of the stone castle was begun in the 14th century by Kęstutis, and around 1409 major works were completed by his son...
under the supervision of the Treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
, until 1511. Afterwards the documents were transferred to Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, and kept in what was referred to as the Lower Castle
Royal Palace of Lithuania
The Royal Palace of Lithuania was a palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, built in the 15th century for the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Royal Palace in the Lower Castle evolved over the years and prospered during the 16th and mid-17th centuries. For four centuries the Palace was the...
. The responsibility for safeguarding the Metrica there, was supervised by the State Chancellor. By 1569, when the regions of Podlaskie, Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
, Podolia
Podolia
The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
and the Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
were separated from Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and incorporated into Kingdom of Poland
Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)
The Kingdom of Poland of the Jagiellons was the Polish state created by the accession of Jogaila , Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the Polish throne in 1386. The Union of Krewo or Krėva Act, united Poland and Lithuania under the rule of a single monarch...
, the books which concerned these regions, were removed from the Lithuanian Metrica, and merged into the Polish Metrica. Due to the deterioration of the books, the State Grand Chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
, Lew Sapieha
Lew Sapieha
Lew Sapieha . He was born in Astrouna , near Vitsebsk, Belarus. He became Great Secretary of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1580, Great Clerk of the Grand Duchy in 1581, Court Chancellor of the GDL in 1585, Grand Chancellor of the GDL from 1589 until 1623, Voivode of Vilnius in 1621, Great...
, ordered the volumes of the Metrica to be recopied in 1594. The recopying process continued until 1607. The newly recopied books were inventoried, rechecked, and transferred to a separate building in Vilnius, with the older books remaining in the Castle of Vilnius.
Great parts of the Metrica were lost during the wars with Muscovy, and others were taken way by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
armies in 1656–1657. Only after the Treaty of Oliva
Treaty of Oliva
The Treaty or Peace of Oliva of 23 April /3 May 1660 was one of the peace treaties ending the Second Northern War...
, in 1660, did the Swedes return many books from the Metrica, but some of them were lost at sea, in the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, during transport back to Lithuania.
The Metrica from Vilnius was taken to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in 1765. The books were bound, cataloged and integrated into the system that was in use, in Warsaw. According to an edict issued in 1793, the Lithuanian Metrica was to be transferred from Warsaw to Vilnius again. After the Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Lithuanian Metrica was transferred to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
as a war trophy and was kept in St. Petersburg. Russia gave several of the Lithuanian Metrica books to Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
in 1799. Afterwards Prussia transferred these books to the Duchy of Warsaw
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...
in 1807. The remaining Lithuanian Metrica books in St. Petersburg were inventoried and taken to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. The majority of the historical Lithuanian Metrica's books have been kept in Russia, and only a small fraction of them are in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
today.
Publications
The Metrica is one of the most authoritative and revered sources on the history of the GDL. Some of the documents of the Metrica and parts of them had begun to be published in the end 18th century. Larger collections of the materials had begun to be published since 1830s («Digest of Prince Obolyenskiy», altern. «Ambassador’s Book of the Metrica...», in 3 volumes, includes detailed register of the books of the Metrica by Anastasyevich (1817)). Other notable publishers of the Metrica materials had been Lyeontovich, Prohaska, Bershadskiy and others. Other notable publications of the period:- Acts of the Lithuanian Metrica (Акты Литовской метрики, т. 1, в. 1 – 2, Варшава, 1896–1897).
- Acts of the Western Russia (Акты Западной России, full name: Акты, относящиеся к истории Западной России, собранные и изданные Археографическою комиссиею. – СПб., 1846–1853).
-
- Consists of about two thousand official documents (not all of them belonging to the Metrica proper), published in five volumes, covering the period of 1340–1699 (I: 1340–1506, II: 1506–1544, III: 1544–1587, IV: 1588–1632, V: 1633–1699).
- Acts of the Southern and Western Russia (Акты Южной и Западной России, full name: Акты, относящиеся к истории Южной и Западной России, собранные и изданные Археографическою комиссиею, т.1-15 – СПб., 1861–1892).
- Consists of the official documents (not all of them belonging to the Metrica proper), published in fifteen volumes, covering the period of 1361–1678. Thematically, concentrates on the 17th century. Ukrainian wars and on 16–17th century Russian–Commonwealth wars. Does not include originally Polish and Latin documents.
- Russian historical library, V. 20, 27, 30, 33 (Русская историческая библиотека, т. 20, 27, 30, 33, Спб. – П., 1903–1915).
- Acts of the Lithuanian-Russian state (Акты Литовско-Русского государcтва, в. 1 – т.2, М., 1897–1899).
- Consists of the documents, mainly of the Metrica, covering the 14–16th centuries, published by Dovnar-Zapol’skiy.
- Malinovskiy. Digest of the materials related to the history of noble council of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Малиновский И. Сборник материалов, относящихся к истории панов-рады Великого Княжества Литовского, [ч. 1 – 2], Томск, 1901–1912).
- Consists of about two thousand official documents (not all of them belonging to the Metrica proper), published in five volumes, covering the period of 1340–1699 (I: 1340–1506, II: 1506–1544, III: 1544–1587, IV: 1588–1632, V: 1633–1699).
In 1980s–1990s there had begun a new wave of the publishing of the Metrica materials, this time as an international, Belarusian–Lithuanian–Polish–Russian effort.
The Metrica had served as a basis for the works of the notable researchers of the GDL history, e.g., Lyubavskiy, Dovnar-Zapol’skiy, Maksimeyka, Lappo, Pichyeta, Malinovskiy, Lawmyanski and others.
The scientific research of the Metrica itself had begun with the work of Ptaszycki (1887). Other notable researchers of the Metrica: Byeryezhkov, Grimstead, Sułkowska-Kurasiowa.
Further reading
- Zigmantas Kiaupa. The Lithuanian Metrica and the Lithuanian Nobility at the End of the Eighteenth Century, in Lithuanian Historical Studies. Vilnius, 1996.
- The Lithuanian Institute of History. News of Lithuanian Metrica. Vol. 1-7.Vilnius, 1996-2003.
- Vilniaus universitetas. Lietuvos metrikos studijos: mokymo priemonė. Vilnius, 1998.
- Ptaszycki, Stanislaw. The Lithuanian Metrica in Moscow and Warsaw: Reconstructing the Archives of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
- Дз. Караў. Архіўная спадчына Вялікага Княства Літоўскага і беларускія архівы ў канцы XVIII – пачатку XX ст. // Спадчына №1, 1996. – Мн. : Полымя, 1996.