№ 22-23 (2014-2015) Abstracts and Keywords Social and Legal Tradition of the GDL David Frick. Tolerating the intolerable: coexistence in the 17 th century Vilnius Th e article considers the practices of tolerance and coexistence of different religious and ethnic communities of Vilnius in the 17th century. In early modern period Vilnius had a very heterogeneous population: Lutherans, Calvinists, Catholics, Uniates, Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The author raises the question how a relatively peaceful coexistence of diverse religious communities was maintained in the era of conflicts and wars. Through the analysis of certain social practices (marriage, settlement, baptism, etc.), and comparison with other European cities (the German imperial cities, Lviv), the author maps the place of Vilnius on the scale of tolerance of European cities of early modern era.
Keywords: Vilnius, Tolerance, Religious Communities, History of Denominations.
Natallia Sliž. The Magistrate Court of Hrodna: the Compliance of Legal Practice with Magdeburg Law (1639–1642) Th e work of the Magistrate Court of Hrodna was scarcely studied in the historiography.
Th e main source for the study of judicial practice was the 1639–1642 book. It provided the material for analysing the court work, its compliance with the law, and the court composition. The institution operated in accordance with the privileges and regulations, including the Speculum Saxonum and Ius municipale. The court dealt with both document recording and consideration of lawsuits. The officials were qualified enough to keep records in accordance with the law, but conflict, abuse and delinquency took place nevertheless.
Keywords: Magistrate, Magdeburg Law, Judicial Practice.
Juraś Bačyšča. Biblical Influence on the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Th e author focuses on importantce of the Bible in the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania law. He analyses the key ideas of the era, the ideological orientation of the creators and the texts of these legal monuments. He notes a tendency of convergence of the GDL legislation with biblical law during the 16th century. The author also mentions the impact of the Reformation on the understanding of biblical values in the GDL society. The influence of the Bible helped to expand the idea of values of freedom and human life, and the moral dimension of law. Reliance on biblical values contributed to the relevance of the GDL Statutes for several centuries.
8 № 22-23 (2014-2015) Keywords: GDL Statutes, Bible, History of Law, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Renaissance.
Literature and Politics Hans Rothe. What is the “Old Russian Literature”?
Th e text summarises the author's many years of research of ancient literature of the East Slavs, including primary sources and later interpretations, as well as the development of Slavic Studies as a discipline which has experienced considerable political influence. He analyses the origin of the phenomenon of "Old Russian literature", the development of the body of texts, the problem of influences and borrowings. He pays considerable attention to the institutional aspects of the book culture of Eastern Europe, as well as various assessments and interpretations of the phenomenon of "Old Russian literature" in scientific studies of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Keywords: Old Russian Literature, History of Literature, Ancient Rus', Slavic Studies.
Polemics and Working Materials Leonid Tymoshenko. Controversial Issues of the History of the Union of Brest Th e article discusses a number of important problems of studying the Union of Brest of 1596. It attempts to separate the scientific and socio-political problems of understanding of the event, and mentions the main directions and achievements in the study of the sources, motivations and reactions to the project of unification of the Catholic and the Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The author presents the most controversial and debatable issues.
Keywords: Union of Brest, History of Denominations, Historiography, Uniate Church.
Aliaksiej Martyniuk. Bernhard Prittwitz: “German Cossack” on the Steppe Frontier of the Crown and the Duchy in the 16 th Century Th e article is devoted to Bernhard Prittwitz (about 1500–1561), the headman of the city of Bar and one of the organizers of the defense of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Tatar invasions. Prittwitz was the founder of the Cossacks at their early stage, and his “Memorandum” and the letters are important sources on the subject.
Activities of Bernhard Prittwitz are considered in the context of the general historical processes that took place in the 16th century on the steppe frontier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia and other Eastern European countries.
Keywords: Polish Kingdom, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Steppe Frontier, Cossacks, Tatars.
9 № 22-23 (2014-2015) Filip Padbiarozkin. Albert Krantz and Ivan the Terrible: a Story of a Message Albert Krantz was a clergyman from Lubeck, a German humanist and author of several works on the history of the peoples of “Germaniae magnae” – in his opinion, an existing ethnoterritorial community of Germans and Slavs. The object of the study is his work Wandalia. Wandalia is permeated by the spirit of pre-Reformation German humanism and displays the classic for the late Middle Ages idea of the “own” antiquity. The author thinks that consideration of Russian subjects of Vandalia is particularly important, because this work was published even before the “Notes on Muscovy” of Sigismund von Herberstein and to this day remains almost unknown within the Russian-speaking readership.
Keywords: Historiography of Renaissance, Muscovy, Ivan the Terrible, Albert Krantz, Wandalia.