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Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic
Sixteenth-Century Ethnographic Accounts of Baltic Paganism
Edited and translated by Francis Young
Series: Foundations
192 Pages, Trim size: 6 x 9 in
- Paperback
- 9781802700220
- Published: April 2023
- Hardcover
- 9781641894371
- Published: March 2022
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the last European polity to renounce paganism and accept the Christian faith, at the end of the fourteenth century. However, the conversion of the Baltic region continued into the early modern period and the ongoing pagan beliefs and practices of Lithuanians and Prussians excited the interest of early ethnographers. This volume brings together Jan Łasicki's On the Gods of the Samogitians, Jan Malecki’s Little Book on the Sacrifices and Idolatry of the Old Prussians, and other Latin texts on Baltic paganism, none of which have hitherto been translated into English. A critical introduction places these texts, which are of interest far beyond the field of Central European history, in the contexts of early modern ethnography, Baltic history, and Reformation religious polemic.
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
Editor’s Note
Translator’s Note
1. The Cosmography of Pope Pius II in an Elegant Description of Europe and Asia [Cosmographia Pii Papae in Asiae et Europae eleganti descriptione] (1458) by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) (extract)
2. Polish Histories [Historiae Polonicae] (1455–80) by Jan Długosz (extracts)
3. The Life and Manners of Cardinal Zbigniew [Vita et mores Sbignei cardinalis] (1480) by Filippo Buonaccorsi (extract)
4. Treatise on the Two Asian and European Sarmatias and on Those Things Contained in Them [Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis Asiana et Europeana et de contentis in eis] (1517) by Maciej z Miechowa (extracts)
5. Two Books on the Antiquities of the Prussians [De Borussiae antiquitatibus libri duo] (1518) by Johannes Stüler (Erasmus Stella) (extracts)
6. Pastoral Preface from Simple Words of Catechism [Catechismusa prasty szadei] (1547) by Martynas Mažvydas
7. On the Customs of the Tatars, Lithuanians, and Muscovites [De moribus Tartarorum, Lituanorum et Moschorum] (ca. 1550) by Michalo the Lithuanian (extracts)
8. A Description of Sarmatian Europe [Sarmatiae Europeae descriptio] (1581) by Alessandro Guagnini (extracts)
9. Little Book on the Sacrifices and Idolatry of the Old Prussians, Livonians, and Other Neighbouring Peoples [Libellus de sacrificiis et idolatria veterum Borussorum, Livonum, aliarumque vicinarum gentium] (1553/1561) by Jan Malecki and Hieronim Malecki
10. On the Gods of the Samogitians, of the Other Sarmatians, and of the False Christians [De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum, et falsorum Christianorum] (1582) by Jan Łasicki
Bibliography
Index
Francis Young is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author or editor of twenty books, including Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic (Arc Humanities Press, 2022)
The book Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic by Dr. Francis Young is a collection of translations into English of 16th century (the time limit has been somewhat extended by the author) documents dealing with non-Christian beliefs found on the Baltic territory.[...]
The texts themselves are known to scholars, though modern researchers cannot easily read the Letto-Preussische Götterlehre by Wilhelm Mannhardt, where these and most other texts relevant to the Baltic mythology are quoted and commented, as Mannhardt published all texts in the original language. The same texts (and many more) have been published by Norbertas Vėlius with Lithuanian translations in 1990s. The English translation of these is the novel aspect here, which is of no small importance, as research and sources usable for the study of the Baltic mythology in English are hard to come upon – previously, most of this has been written either in the local languages, or German, or Russian.
Francis Young refrains from evaluating the usability of the texts for recon- struction of the ancestral belief systems, indicating the shortcomings of the authors of the original texts, along with aspects that might have influenced their texts. However, Dr. Young suggests that with “utmost caution” it can still be done. He states that his task has been to provide the texts and put them in the historical context. This task appears to be quite satisfactorily completed.
~Aldis Pūtelis, Journal of the Institute of Latvian History 118, no. 1 (2023): 176–83
- The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies—Book Publication Subvention Prize
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