17 a. Lietuvos lotyniškų knygų autoriai

Lithuanian cultural heritage is hardly perceived without the inheritance of writings in different languages. „XVII a. Lietuvos lotyniškų knygų sąrašas“ („List of the 17th Century Latin Books in Lithuania“), which has been prepared by Daiva Narbutienė and Sigitas Narbutas and issued in 1998, allows us to make some conclusions regarding the authors and compilers of these books. The list comprises 1234 records. 1104 publications testify their creators in one way or another. Latin books in Lithuania have been created by at least 457 authors. In addition, approximately 220 authors are included in the poetry' collections. Over 15 percent of the compilers of the publications announced in the list are corporate bodies. The majority (over 70 percent) of the creators of Lithuanian books in the Latin language were citizens of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Original creation in the Latin language was prevailing, while translations in this language were comparatively rare. Book in the Latin language has been created by representatives of different social layers and confessional outlooks, thus emphasizing broad spheres of usage of this language. The Latin language was an intercommunicational language of the European countries. Latin book of the 17th century is one of the most significant means, which created possibilities for the Lithuanian community to get acquainted with the cultural life of other countries and concurrently, to get adequately integrated in the European culture