DARIUS ANTANAVIČIUS

Institute of Lithuanian History

ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-3810-3297

Research areas: the Lithuanian Metrica, Latin literature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, historiography, source studies, Neo-Latin writing.

DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all90-13

ONCE AGAIN ON THE YEAR OF MIKALOJUS DAUKŠA’S DEATH

One More Time About Mikalojus Daukša’s Death Date^²

ANNOTATION

The article returns once again to the date of Mikalojus Daukša’s death. A new date for Daukša’s death proposed recently—the month of February 1615—has proved to be erroneous. The article presents decisive arguments that Daukša in fact died in the second half of February 1613.

KEYWORDS: Mikalojus Daukša (?–1613), Konstantinas Jablonskis (1892–1960), Kražiai College (1614–1773).

ANNOTATION

The article goes back to the question of Mikalojus Daukša’s death date. The date provided in the 2022 publication, February 1615, should be reconsidered. Similarly, final proofs are given in support of the mainstream historiography that Daukša died in 1613.

KEYWORDS: Mikalojus Daukša (?–1613), Konstantinas Jablonskis (1892–1960), Kražiai College (1614–1773).

^¹ The article was prepared while implementing the LMT 2021–2024 project of researcher groups “Research on Kražiai College: Historical and Literary Sources” (Agreement No. S-MIP-21-42).

^² The article was prepared for the LMT 2021–2024 research group project “Kražiai College Research: Historical and Literary Sources” (Contract No. S-MIP-21-42).

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In volume 87 of Acta Linguistica Lithuanica, the author of this article raised the hypothesis that Mikalojus Daukša, the pioneer of Lithuanian writing in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereinafter—the GDL), may have died not in February 1613, as has been universally accepted until now, but two years later, in February 1615 (Antanavičius 2022).

This conclusion was reached on the basis of two documents dated 15 October 1613 and 18 October 1614, in which Daukša is mentioned as alive and having participated in (przy bytności w Bodze wielebnego jego mości księdza Mikołaja Daukszy, kanonika miednickiego) first measuring out the lands of Getautiškė / Bukaũtiškė, which at that time belonged to the estates of the Kražiai altar benefice, and later recording them.

The documents mentioned have survived, it is true, not in the form of originals but only as copies. Therefore, the article analyzed them and concluded that there is no basis for doubting their dates. On the basis of this conclusion, the hypothesis was raised that an error may have crept into entry No. 15 of the register (summary of contents) of the document of the 1809 inventory, or list, of documents of the Babėnai estate published by Konstantinas Jablonskis, which until now had been the principal and sole evidence of Daukša’s death in February 1613 (Jablonskis 1977).

In view of the dates of the two documents mentioned, a new date for Daukša’s death was proposed—the second half of February 1615. The article in question concludes as follows³:

What possibilities are there for verifying it [the date—D. A.] through other sources? If Daukša’s will was entered in the books of the Samogitian castle and land courts in 1615, this could easily be checked by examining the books themselves. Unfortunately, neither the records of the Samogitian castle court nor those of the land court from 1615 have survived, so this is impossible. The minutes of the 1613–1615 sessions of the chapter of the Samogitian (Medininkai) cathedral, of which Canon Daukša was a member, have also not survived. And in the earliest surviving book of acts of the consistory of the Samogitian bishopric (LVIA 696–2–926), Mikalojus Daukša is not mentioned at all among the documents from 1614–1615. Thus, the circle closes. Some other individual documents remain, which are not known at present.

After the article was published, it became clear that one important source had nevertheless escaped its author’s notice; it is currently preserved not in Lithuania but in Poland. This is the earliest surviving chapter book of the Samogitian cathedral, preserved in the diocesan archive of Włocławek, containing entries and documents from 1613–1622 (AKap Žmudź. 1). The author of the article was informed about this source by Dr Liudas Jovaiša, whom it is appropriate to thank here.

Upon receiving a digital copy of this small manuscript, the hypothesis put forward unfortunately proved unfounded, however regrettable it is to acknowledge this.

³ Antanavičius 2022: 323.

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Once Again on the Year of Mikalojus Daukša’s Death

This is demonstrated by the heading of the very first meeting of the spring session of the Samogitian chapter, held on 16 April 1613^⁴:

Acta of the venerable chapter of Mednicensis, drawn up by order of the most illustrious and most reverend lord, Lord Nicolai Pac, by the grace of God bishop of Samogitia, in the year 1613, on 16 April, after the death of Lord Nicolai Daugsza, canon, following the expiry of the period for summoning the venerable lords canons to a general chapter by the procurator of the cathedral church of Mednicensis, in the presence of the venerable lords Lord Ioannis Wyszemirsky, procurator, Lord Christophori Dirwonsky, Lord Iosephi Gardisky, Lord Ioannis Kozakiewicz, Lord Nicolai Samson, and Mathei Babinowsky, then notary.

[Acts of the venerable chapter of Medininkai, drawn up by order of the most illustrious and most reverend lord, Mr Mikalojus Pacas, by the grace of God bishop of Samogitia, on 16 April 1613, after the death of Mr Mikalojus Daukša, canon, once the summons deadline for convening the venerable lords canons to the general chapter had elapsed, summoned by the procurator of the cathedral church of Medininkai, in the presence of the venerable lords Mr Jonas Višemirskis, procurator, Mr Kristupas Dirvoniškis, Mr Juozapas Gardiškis, Mr Mikalojus Samsonas, and Matas Babinovskis, then notary]

^⁴ AKAp Žmud. 1, 1. 1r.

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There is no reason to question the authenticity of this entry or the date indicated in it. One thing is clear: the date of Daukša’s will, currently known only from the register (summary), namely 13 February 1613, is accurate. Therefore, the fact of Daukša’s death in the second half of February 1613 is now finally confirmed and established as a historical fact.

In the aforementioned Samogitian chapter book, Daukša is mentioned as deceased in several other places as well, for example, already in the first resolution of the aforementioned meeting, which records the request of the chapter canon and procurator Jonas Viešemirskis to assign the vacant prebend of Lank̃os Laũkas “after the death of Canon Daukša, who fell asleep in the Lord”^⁵:

Before the aforementioned venerable lords canons of the cathedral church of Mednicensis, duly assembled in the chapter house by the procurator and constituting and personally representing that chapter, the venerable lord Ioannes Wyszemirsky, canon and procurator of Mednicensis, holder of the minor prebend in Lukosławky, in accordance with the rights and custom of the said church observed hitherto, requested, in every best manner, form, and right available and appropriate to him, that the major prebend, rendered ordinarily vacant by the death of the lord Daugsza, canon, deceased in the Lord, be conferred upon him, and also proved that he was entitled to advancement to it by reason of seniority.

It must be emphasized once again that the documents dated 15 October 1613 and 18 October 1614 cited in the first article are reliable. The circumstances of their creation are entirely clear: they reflect Mikalojus Pacas’s attempt to continue and implement the plan of his great predecessor, Merkelis Giedraitis, bishop of Samogitia, to establish a Jesuit college in Samogitia. Pacas undertook these actions precisely at the end of 1613. Some of the documents testifying to the implementation of this plan have already been published; others are still awaiting their turn.

The Jesuits of Kražiai relied on various documents from 1613–1614 for many years while litigating with the chapter of the Samogitian cathedral over the ownership of the estates of Getautiškė, Milžavėnai, and Žirnainiai. There even survives a seventeenth-century summary, printed in an unknown year and place, of the historical circumstances of this long-running case and the documents connected with it, in which the arguments of the fathers of Kražiai College are briefly set out (Informatio). The unique copy of this print (i.e. the only known copy) is currently preserved in Poland, in Wrocław, at the Ossolineum Library (shelfmark—XVII–20–III). Here is what is said in points 1, 2, and 4 (translated from Latin)^⁶:

^⁵ Ibid.

^⁶ Informatio A[r–v], A2[r].

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I. In the year of Our Lord 1608, the fathers of the Society of Jesus, having arrived in the diocese of Samogitia and having been received most graciously by the most illustrious and most reverend lord, the bishop of Samogitia, Merkelis Giedraitis, settled in Kražiai. Wishing to establish a college in Kražiai, the aforementioned most illustrious ordinary of the place had decided to purchase Kražiai and attach to it the Pašvintinys estates in the district of Upytė, which somewhat earlier he had acquired from the illustrious lord Mikalojus Burba, notary of the Samogitian land court, with his hereditary funds and in perpetual ownership; but, struck by a fatal illness and unable to implement this plan, he bequeathed by will two thousand Hungarian florins from the aforementioned Pašvintinys estates [income] to the future Kražiai College of the Society of Jesus. [...]

II. The successor of Bishop Giedraitis, the most illustrious and most reverend lord Mikalojus Pacas, incorporated the Pašvintinys estates, from whose income the sum of two thousand florins had been bequeathed to Kražiai College, into the estates of the bishop’s table because of their proximity to other episcopal estates; and, wishing to free the Pašvintinys estates from obligations, after carrying out an exchange [of estates] with the consent of the venerable chapter of the Medininkai cathedral, he transferred in perpetual ownership the bishop’s-table estates of Milžavėnai and Žirnainiai and the manor of Getautiškė, which at that time belonged to the vacant Kražiai altar benefice, and ordered Mikalojus Savickis, the administrator of his estate at Varniai, to transfer their administration to the fathers of the Society of Jesus at Kražiai. An order of the most illustrious ordinary of the place to the aforementioned administrator, written on 15 December 1613, survives. [...]

IV. In order that this exchange [of estates] might be confirmed, the most illustrious ordinary of the place and the venerable chapter of Medininkai had previously submitted a petition [supplication] to Pope Paul V. It was drawn up at Varniai on 12 December 1613. It was signed by the most illustrious ordinary of the place and the illustrious lord Jonas Višemirskis (Višomirskis), canon and procurator of the venerable chapter of Medininkai.

The documents mentioned in points 2 and 4 in extenso were published in the first volume of the sources of Kražiai College^⁷. Thus, one question remains: how did the surname of the already deceased Mikalojus Daukša appear in two documents, dated 15 October 1613 and 18 October 1614, alongside those of other persons who were alive at the time? Any version would be mere speculation; the truth might become clear only if the originals were discovered.

SOURCES AND LITERATURE

A Kაპ Žмудз. 1 – Archivum Dioecesialne we Włocławku [Minutes of the sessions of the Samogitian cathedral chapter from 1613–1622 and other documents].

^⁷ Nedzinskaitė, Antanavičius, eds., 2019: 49–52, 55, 63–64.

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Antanavičius Darius 2022: When Did Mikalojus Daukša Really Die? – Acta Linguistica Lituanica 87, 311–325.

Informacio – Informatio historica et iuridica de bonis collegii Crozensis Societatis Iesu dictis Gietowtowszki, Miłżowiany et Zyrniany [A seventeenth-century print without precise publication date or place].

Jablonskis Konstantinas 1973: Lithuanian Culture and Its Figures, Vilnius: Mintis, 71–199.

Nedzinskaitė Živilė, Antanavičius Darius, eds., 2019: Sources of Kražiai College Preserved in the Archive of the Society of Jesus in Rome = Fontes collegii Crosensis, qui in Archivo Romano Societatis Iesu asservantur, vol. 1 = Part 1: 1608–1700 (Monuments of the History and Activity of Kražiai College = Monumenta historiam et acta collegii Crosensis spectantia), Vilnius: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore.

Received on 18 February 2024.

DARIUS ANTANAVIČIUS

Institute of Lithuanian History

Tilto / Radvilų St. 17, Vilnius LT–01101, Vilnius, Lithuania

d.antanavič[email protected]

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