Kada iš tikrųjų mirė Mikalojus Daukša?
Abstract
Straipsnyje kvestionuojama Mikalojaus Daukšos mirties data. Iki šiol manyta, kad Daukša mirė 1613 m. vasario mėnesį. Straipsnyje pristatomi du dokumentai, įrodantys, kad 1613 m. spalio 15 d. – 1614 m. spalio 18 d. Daukša dar buvo gyvas. Pagrindžiama nauja Daukšos mirties data – 1615 m. vasario mėnuo.
Full text
DARIUS ANTANAVIČIUS
Institute of Lithuanian History
ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-3810-3297
Research areas: Lithuanian Metrica, Latin literature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, historiography, source studies, Neo-Latin literature.
DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all87-15
WHEN DID MIKALOJUS DAUKŠA REALLY DIE?
When Did Mikalojus Daukša Die?
ANNOTATION
The article questions the date of Mikalojus Daukša’s death. Until now, it was thought that Daukša died in February 1613. The article presents two documents proving that Daukša was still alive from 15 October 1613 to 18 October 1614. A new date of Daukša’s death—February 1615—is substantiated.
KEYWORDS: Mikalojus Daukša (?–1615), Konstantinas Jablonskis (1892–1960), Kražiai College (1614–1773).
ANNOTATION
The article questions the date of death of Mikalojus Daukša. Until now, it was generally assumed that Daukša died in February 1613. Two documents of 1613 and 1614 are presented proving that Daukša was still alive at that time. As a result, a new date of his death is proposed, namely the second half of February 1615.
KEYWORDS: Mikalojus Daukša (?–1615), Konstantinas Jablonskis (1892–1960), Kražiai College (1614–1773).
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INTRODUCTION
Many gaps still yawn in the biography of Mikalojus Daukša, the pioneer of Lithuanian writing in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereafter, GDL): his year of birth is unknown, as are when and where he studied, when he became a priest, and many similar matters. One of the few precisely known facts of his life is the date of his death. It is generally accepted that Daukša died at the beginning of 1613, between 13 February and 5 March. This fact was established by the prominent interwar historian Konstantinas Jablonskis, who published many new documents about Daukša and his birth (Jablonskis 1931; 1933)3
The date indicated by Jablonskis was generally accepted and travels from book to book, from article to article, and recently has also “spilled over” into the vast reaches of the internet.
The author of these lines did not set out in advance to “correct Jablonskis” at all costs. As often happens, a firm new word can be spoken without planning or expecting it. Simply noticing two documents in which Daukša’s surname flickered into view, their dates and connections with the years of Daukša’s death were investigated. The facts that emerged compel us to doubt the truth repeated by everyone and make it possible to indicate another date for Daukša’s death. This is the aim of the present article.
1. THE DATE 1613 AND ITS BASIS
First, it is necessary to recall what the generally accepted and repeated date of Daukša’s death rests on. It is attested not by a document that has survived to this day, but only by a considerably later register, that is, a summary of its contents. In 1931, in volume 7 of Tautos ir žodis, Konstantinas Jablonskis published a bundle of new documents about Daukša and his relatives. Among them was an inventory, or list, of the documents of the Babėnai estate, from whose surroundings Daukša originated, compiled in 1809, among which
¹ For Lithuanian readers, Jurgis Lebedys’s monograph remains the main treasury of summarized knowledge about Daukša (see Lebedys 1963). More recent sources and studies are mentioned in the register of fourteenth–sixteenth-century Lithuanian Catholic clergy (see LKD 2009: 1576). Another historical article appeared recently (see Drungilas 2020).
² The commonly indicated date of Daukša’s birth, 1527–1538, was questioned by Liudas Jovaiša, who hypothetically “moved” the second date forward to 1546 (see Jovaiša 2000: 40–41). Thus, Daukša may have been considerably younger at his death than is generally thought. That this changes much in the case of historical figures is well demonstrated by the “rejuvenation” of Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius by an entire decade (see Chachaj 2014).
³ All these publications were reprinted during the Soviet period in a collection of Jablonskis’s Lithuanian studies (see Jablonskis 1973: 71–199). The article will cite precisely this edition below.
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of the documents registered in this case, the most important is No. 15. For the sake of clarity, its beginning is repeated here⁴:
On February 13, 1613, dated; on March 5 of the same year, recorded in the Samogitian grod court; on June 4 of the same year, a copy of the land testament of the Reverend Mikołaj Bartłomiejewicz Dawksza, canon of Samogitia, transferred to the land court of the same Duchy of Samogitia [...].
Thus, this is only a register of Daukša’s will drawn up on 13 February 1613, and no one has ever seen the document itself. The description shows that the will itself must have been enacted, or entered, in the Samogitian castle court book on 5 March 1613, while a certified extract concerning its enactment (with the text of the will itself or its copy) was entered once again—in other words, reenacted—in the Samogitian land court book on 4 June 1613. This was the customary, from today’s perspective notarial, formalization practice for wills at that time. The problem is that neither the Samogitian castle court books nor the land court books from 1613 have survived, so the text of Daukša’s will is in extenso unknown to anyone⁵; only the contents of the part related to the inscription of the Babėnai estate to his relatives are known, and that is not relevant here, so it is not discussed in greater detail.
Until now, there had been no reason to doubt February 1613 as the date of Daukša’s death, because after Jablonskis no one had seen later documents in which Daukša was mentioned as alive; consequently, that year quite reasonably became established in historiography.
2. TWO UNKNOWN DOCUMENTS FROM 1613–1614 MENTIONING DAUKŠA
While publishing sources of Kražiai College preserved in the archive of the Society of Jesus in Rome together with Živilė Nedzinskaitė in 2019–2022, an objective rarely set for oneself was pursued: to explain not only the personal names, place names, or historical facts mentioned in the texts (that is, the “surface” of the text), but also the college’s economic transactions with various persons. Therefore, in searching for legal, financial, and economic documents, all known archival materials of Kražiai College preserved in libraries and archives of various countries were reviewed.
The most important legal and economic material of Kražiai College is currently preserved in Moscow, in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, well known to historians
⁴ Jablonskis 1973: 163.
⁵ In discussing this fact in his monograph, Jurgis Lebedys, without grounds, indulges in unfounded speculation (see Lebedys 1963: 143).
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known as the fund No. 1603 of the former estates of the colleges of the Society of Jesus, which, after the Society’s dissolution in 1773, passed to the Educational Commission of the Commonwealth, or the Ministry of Education of that time.
In inventory 4 of this fund, among dozens of folders of documents concerning the estates of the former Kražiai College, there is folder No. 3315, containing some of the earliest documents related to the college’s founding. Among them are originals, certified copies, or simple transcripts of various documents. One or another document has already been published6. The surname of Mikalojus Daukša was noticed in two documents in the aforementioned folder, related to the establishment of Kražiai College in 1613–1614.
The first document7, dated 15 October 1613, concerns the measurement in morgs and rods of the lands of Getautiškė / Bukantiškė, which at that time belonged to the estates of the Kražiai altarage (now the territory of Kražiai eldership).
6 Nedzinskaitė, Antanavičius, eds., 2019: 49–52.
7 RGADA 1603–4–3315, fol. 16r–v.
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What follows is its beginning and end, while the lands themselves are omitted here to save space, although they provide much material for learning the historical place names of Getautiškė, Bukantiškė, and the surrounding areas.
At the personal command of the most illustrious Reverend Father Mikołaj Pac, Bishop of Samogitia, the measurement in morgs of the lands called Gintowtiszki, belonging to the Kražiai altarage, was carried out by the surveyor Balcer Zabieła on 15 October 1613, in the presence at Bodze of the Reverend Father Mikołaj Dauksza, canon of Medininkai, and Mr. Mikołaj Sawicki, His Grace Mr. Marcin Kosieracki, His Grace Mr. Heliasz Daugird. First
A large meadow with a wedge adjoining the lands of His Grace Mr. Osmieniszek; in this meadow, 6 morgs and 17 rods. [...]
Having verified this register of the measurement of the Gintowtiszki lands, we, who were present, confirmed it with our own signatures and seals [s].
Melchior Heliaszewicz Gieysz, custos Vilnensis, plebanus Krozensis, episcopatus Samogitiae pronunc administrator, in his own hand; Mikołaj Dowksza, canon [s] of Medininkai, in his own hand; Mikołaj Sawicki, in his own hand; Marcin Kosieracki, in his own hand; Heliasz Dowgird, in his own hand; Balcer Zabieła, in his own hand.
The second document8, dated 18 October 1614, is an inventory of the lands of the aforementioned Getautiškė manor (folwark). Its beginning and end are as follows:
Inventory of the lands of the Gintowtyszki folwark belonging to the Kražiai altarage, drawn up and verified at the personal command of the most illustrious Reverend Father Mikołaj Pac, Bishop of Samogitia, in the presence at Bodze of the Reverend Father Mikołaj Dowksza, canon of Medininkai, and Mr. Mikołaj Sawicki, His Grace Mr. Marcin Kosieracki, and His Grace Mr. Heliasz Daugird. The meadow called Kontiszki, measuring ten wagon-loads, lies between the lands of His Grace Mr. Naborowski, by the Pobrastu Upis [ss] beside Mr. Naborowski’s field; it is mown by a Gintowtyszki subject named Zuborakas [?]
[...]
Having verified and inventoried these lands, we confirmed them with our signatures and seals [s] and, at the command of the most illustrious His Grace Father Mikołaj Pac, Bishop of Samogitia, submitted them to the Reverend Father Jan Jamiołkowski, rector of the Kražiai College of the Societatis Iesu. Dated at Gintowtiszkach, in the year one thousand six hundred fourteen, on the eighteenth of October.
Mikołaj Dowksza, canon of Medininkai, in his own hand; Marcin Kosieracki, I have signed in my own hand; Eliasz Dowgird, in his own hand; Mikołaj Sawicki, in his own hand.
⁸ RGADA 1603–4–3315, fol. 7ᵛ–8ᵛ.
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3. THE RELIABILITY OF THE DOCUMENTS
Unfortunately, both documents have survived not as originals but only as copies, so it is first necessary to assess when these copies were made and how reliable they are.
The document dated 15 October 1613 is an unauthenticated copy whose provenance is unknown. On its verso side are the following archival entries: 1) Kopia wymorgowaṅa gruntów gietowtyskich do altaryi kroskiej należących w roku 1613 15 8bra / 13 liczba fascy. 4; 2) 1779 rewidowane. The second entry could obviously have been made only after the archive of the former Kražiai College had already been transferred to the Educational Commission. It is more difficult to say when the first entry appeared, since considerable error is possible when judging solely by handwriting. In any case, it is earlier than the first, so it may be presumed to have been made while the college still existed. The handwriting of the copy itself is clearly earlier than both entries; it may be associated with the second half of the seventeenth century.
The provenance of the copy dated 18 October 1614 is entirely clear. After the quoted signatures there is a Polish entry stating that on 6 July 1672 the aforementioned land inventory was enacted in the Samogitian land court book:
In the year 1672, on 6 July, Mr Jan Kontowt submitted this inventory for entry. Piotr Rybiński, Samogitian land judge; Mikołaj Szemiot, deputy judge; K. Сиповичь, scribe.
What follows is the final entry, which definitively explains its provenance:
Anno 1704 month [vacat]. I gave this copy from the authentic original of the Bukantiškė inventory, at the request of His Grace Mr Alexander Dowiat, to His Grace Father Franciszek Narmunt SI, rector of Kražiai College, and handed it over to His Grace Mr Dowiat.
On the basis of these entries, it is fairly easy to conclude that the text preserved in Moscow is an unauthenticated copy of the original inventory itself. This is also indicated by the four circles, the so-called locus sigilli, pointing to the seals that were present in the original itself. The original, together with its 1672 copy, was handed over in 1704 by Danielius Moyrzymas (Maižrimas, 1643–1706), the prosecutor of Kražiai College’s rights⁹
⁹ Nedzinskaitė, Antanavičius, eds., 2022: 12, 17. His obituary reveals that he was the one who organized the documents of the Kražiai College archive (ARSI Lith. 62: 569: “Hanc demum insignem illius circa ordinanda iura collegii assidu itatem propria manu concinnatus liber testatur continens elenchum et exactum indicem omnium iurium collegii, quo prae oculis, ut ipse in titulo volebat, habito facile inveniri possent cuiusvis praedii, pagi limitumque descriptiones et dislimitationes et similia iuris instrumenta”). A Lithuanian translation from another textual version was published in Čiurinskas, Daukšienė 2011: 246.
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(oddalem) to some Alexander Daujotas, having first made a copy of it and deposited it in the college archive.
The version of the text of this inventory entered in 1672 into the Samogitian land court book is more problematic. The quoted entry concerning its enactment indicates that another copy of the text may be expected in the relevant manuscript Samogitian land court books. Three of them have survived in total and are currently preserved in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives (LVIA SA 14702–14704). According to the inventory, the very first of them does indeed cover the acts of 20 June–6 July 1672.
Unfortunately, of the documents entered on 6 July 1672, only one is found there—the very last one—and it is severely defective10. The other surviving Samogitian land court books contain no entries for July 1672. It is likely that the other documents enacted on 6 July simply did not survive, just as the acts of the so-called St Michael’s session of this court from late September–early October 1672 did not survive.
Thus, we have only one copy of the document dated 18 October 1614, so it is worth analyzing separately whether it can be relied upon. All the facts indicate that there is currently no basis for doubting it. First, this is demonstrated by the surnames of the Samogitian land court officials who confirmed the inventory’s enactment—all of them held the indicated offices at that time11, and the scribe Gabrielius Sipovičius or Sipavičius actually handled the acts of the court’s 1672 summer session12.
Second, the transfer of the original inventory to some Alexander Daujotas in 1704 can be substantiated by other sources. The aforementioned prosecutor of Kražiai College’s rights, Danielius Moyrzymas, left a separate and exceptionally valuable manuscript of his activities, currently preserved in Moscow in the aforementioned fund (RGADA 1603-4-3277). Its pages 4 and 8 discuss precisely the prehistory of the transfer of the documents carried out in 1704:
In the year 1702, on 26 October, I renewed the boundary and the boundary mounds, beginning from Mrs Siemaszkowa’s forests called Girale, both ours and hers. This boundary began with Mr Dowiat on Dowiat’s left side and, on the right side, with various wedges and crooked lines of Bukantyszki. I renewed several dozen mounds. The boundary from Mr Dowiat remains unfinished. My term is the description of the mounds with cords and rods. The Reverend rector postponed it until the following year.
[...]
10 LVIA, SA 14702, fol. 1005–1006.
11 UWKL Žm. 2015: No. 921 (Sipovičius), 994 (Šemeta), 1130 (Rybinskis).
12 This is demonstrated by a separate heading of the series of acts from 1672: “Books of perpetual, testified, enacted, etc. cases of the Troki district for the year 1672, under the scribal office of His Grace Mr Gabryel Sipowicz, district governor of Šovdov” (see LVIA SA 14702, fol. 528r).
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In Bukantiškė in 1702 I began the delimitation with His Grace Mr Dowiat, but did not finish it; there is a need to exchange land with him there, as several of our checkerboard plots lie among his lands, two checkerboard plots. And afterward our people neglected for so many years to exchange legal documents [crossed out by me – D. A.].
[In 1702 in Bukantiškė I began the delimitation [of the lands] with His Grace Mr Daujotas, [but] did not finish it; there is a need to exchange lands with him there, as among his estates there are several of our [that is, of Kražiai College – D. A.] strips, two strips. Besides, our people have carelessly failed for so many years to arrange an exchange of title documents.]
The reliability of the inventory text itself is confirmed by the mention of Kražiai as a college and of Jonas Jamiolkowski as its rector at the end of the document. The point is that the Jesuit house in Kražiai, officially operating from 1608, initially as a mission (missio), later as a residence (residentia), could be called a college, and its superior a rector, only after 25 August 1614, when Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius signed and sealed the college’s foundation privilege in Kretinga¹³. Second, the document’s date is written in words rather than numerals (in the latter case, it would have been easier to make a mistake when copying), so it is unlikely to have been distorted.
Thus, the mention of Mikalojus Daukša in the document of 18 October 1614 indicates that he was still alive at that time. How can this be reconciled with the date of his will given in the list of Babėnai estate documents published by Jablonskis?
4. A NEW DATE FOR DAUKŠA’S DEATH
There is a strong temptation to suppose that an error crept into the aforementioned document register¹⁴ and that 1615, rather than 1613, was intended. If this assumption is accepted, all currently known documents mentioning Daukša from 1613–1615 would form the following coherent chronological sequence:
1) The documents of 15 October 1613–18 October 1614 attest that Daukša was still alive; 2) on 13 February 1615 Daukša drew up his will and died soon afterward; 3) on 5 March 1615 the will was enacted in the Samogitian castle court book; 4) on 4 June 1615 a copy of the will was reenacted in the Samogitian land court book;
¹³ Nedzinskaitė, Antanavičius, eds., 2019: 58–63.
¹⁴ That is, it was not Jablonskis who erred by incorrectly rendering the manuscript; rather, the error was made when the documents were transcribed and dated at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
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5) On 10 November 1615, after his death, Daukša’s relatives divided the inheritance assigned by his will.
Particular attention should be drawn to the final point. Jablonskis himself published the relevant document from the Samogitian land court book (Jablonskis 1973: 158–161). If one assumes that Daukša died in February 1613, it would be somewhat strange that the deceased’s relatives divided the small property bequeathed to them only more than two and a half years after the testator’s death. Although these divisions may in fact have been delayed by various circumstances not mentioned in the document, it seems to us that the swift division of the inheritance, occurring within a good half-year after the testator’s death in 1615, further substantiates the new date of Daukša’s death.
What possibilities are there for verifying it through other sources? If Daukša’s will was enacted in the Samogitian castle and land court books in 1615, this could easily be checked by examining the books themselves. Unfortunately, neither the Samogitian castle court acts nor the land court acts from 1615 have survived, so this is impossible. Nor have the minutes of the 1613–1615 sessions of the Samogitian (Medininkai) cathedral chapter, of which Canon Daukša was a member, survived15. And in the earliest book of acts of the Samogitian bishopric consistory (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, currently unknown, may remain.
5. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, it is maintained that, in light of the foregoing, the date of death of Mikalojus Daukša, the pioneer of Lithuanian writing in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, must henceforth be moved to the second half of February 1615.
SOURCES AND LITERATURE
ARSI Lith. 62 – Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Lithuanica 62 [Obituaries of members of the Lithuanian Jesuit province who died in 1690–1723].
Chachaj Marian 2014: On the date of birth and education of Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz. – Studia z dziejów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego (XVI–XVIII wieku), edited by S. Górzyński, M. Nagielski, Warsaw: DiG, 49–58.
15 The earliest surviving book of minutes of the Samogitian cathedral chapter covers 1620–1638 (LVIA 696–2–799).
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Čiurinskas Mintautas, Daukšienė Ona 2011: Short biographies of Jesuits who died in Kražiai – summariola vitae. – Senoji Lietuvos literatūra 32, 215–268.
Drungilas Jonas 2020: Mikalojus Daukša’s 1602 document: the background to its discovery and publication. – Lietuvos istorijos metraštis 2020/1, 187–192.
Jablonskis Konstantinas 1931: Documents concerning Canon M. Daukša. – Tauta ir žodis 7, 353–422.
Jablonskis Konstantinas 1933: Supplementary information about Canon M. Daukša. – Archivum philologicum 4, 64–85.
Jablonskis Konstantinas 1973: Lithuanian Culture and Its Figures, Vilnius: Mintis, 71–199.
Jovaiša Liudas 2000: Mikalojus Daukša—the clergyman. – Naujasis Židinys-Aidai 2000/1–2, 40–45.
Lebedys Jurgis 1963: Mikalojaus Daukša, Vilnius: State Fiction Literature Publishing House.
LKD 2009 – Lietuvos katalikų dvasininkai XIV–XVI a. Bažnyčios istorijos studijos 2, eds. V. Ališauskas, T. Jaszczołt, L. Jovaiša, M. Paknys, Vilnius: Aidai.
LVIA 696–2–799 – Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas, fund 696, inventory 2, file 799 [Minutes of the Samogitian cathedral chapter’s sessions, 1620–1638].
LVIA 696–2–926 – Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas, fund 696, inventory 2, file 926 [Book of acts of the Samogitian bishopric consistory, 1614–1629].
LVIA SA 14702–14704 – Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas, Senieji aktai, files 14702–14704 [Books of acts of the Samogitian land court, 1671–1672].
Nedzinskaitė Živilė, Antanavičius Darius, eds., 2019: Kražių kolegijos šaltiniai, saugomi Jėzaus Draugijos archyve Romoje = Fontes collegii Crosensis, qui in Archivo Romano Societatis Iesu asservantur, d. 1 = P. 1: 1608–1700 (Kražių kolegijos istorijos ir veiklos paminklai = Monumenta historiam et acta collegii Crosensis spectantia), Vilnius: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore.
Nedzinskaitė Živilė, Antanavičius Darius, eds., 2022: Kražių kolegijos šaltiniai, saugomi Jėzaus Draugijos archyve Romoje = Fontes collegii Crosensis, qui in Archivo Romano Societatis Iesu asservantur, d. 2 = P. 2: 1701–1773 (Kražių kolegijos istorijos ir veiklos paminklai = Monumenta historiam et acta collegii Crosensis spectantia), Vilnius: Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore.
RGADA 1603–4–3315 – Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts [Rossijskij gosudarstvennyj arhiv drevnih aktov], fund [fond] 1603 «Educational Commission Fund»
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fund] [„Komissija Edukacionnogo funduša“], inventory [opis’] 4, file [delo] 3315 [Documents related to the establishment of Kražiai College].
RGADA 1603–4–3327 – Российский государственный архив древних актов [Rossijskij gosudarstvennyj archiv drevnič aktov], фонд [fond] 1603 «Комиссия Эдукационного фундуşa» [„Komissija Edukacionnogo funduša“], опись [opis’] 4, дело [delo] 3327 [Danielius Mŏyrz ymo veiklos knyga, XVIII a. pirmasis dešimtmetis].
U WKL Žm. 2015 – Urzędnicy Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. Spisy 3: Księstwo Żmudzkie. XVI–XVIII wiek, compiled by H. Lulewicz, A. Rachuba, P. P. Romaniuk, A. Haratym, Warsaw: DiG.
When Did Mikalojus Daukša Die?
S U M M A R Y
It is generally assumed that Mikalojus Daukša, the pioneer of books printed in Lithuanian in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, died between 13 February and 5 March 1613. This fact was established by Konstantinas Jablonskis (1892–1960), a well-known Lithuanian historian, who published plenty of valuable documents on Daukša and his relatives between the WW1 and the WW2. The year of 1613 is based on the will of Daukša but the will itself is known only from a register extant in an inventory of the documents concerning the lands of the former Babenai domain which Daukša and his relatives were in possession of. After Jablonskis, nobody saw a document proving that Daukša was alive after 1613. As a result, this date established itself in the literature related to Daukša’s biography. Recently, two documents were found by the author of the article which prove that Daukša was still alive at least until 18 October 1614. These documents preserved in copies were subjected to scrutiny by the author of the article and found reliable. As a result, a new date of Daukša’s death is proposed, namely the second half of February 1615.
Submitted on 10 November 2022
DARIUS ANTANAVIČIUS
Institute of Lithuanian History
17 Tilto / Radvilų St., LT–01101 Vilnius, Lithuania
[email protected]
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