While making bibliographic descriptions of the books from the 16th century, librarians of Vilnius University Library have made yet another discovery. A bibliographic record of the book La pedagogiechrestienne (Christian Pedagogy) published by Jacques Salesse (?–1615) in 1598 in the town of Sedan, situated in north-eastern France, close to the border with Belgium, was not found in any electronic catalogue of the libraries of the world. The book, signed with initials LCL and containing 447 pages, was not mentioned neither in any scholarly article covering publications and authors of that period nor catalogues of scholarly or private libraries. The library contacted Louise Amazan, a librarian working in the Rare Books Department of the National Library of France and a curator of 16th-century books. Unfortunately, she could not help to identify the author of the book as, according to the data of the French national bibliography, no copy of the 1592 edition has survived and so far, French scholars haven’t had any data on the 1598 edition – the copy kept at VU Library.
The copy of Vilnius University Library has several inscriptions bearing witness to the fact that the book entered the library of Vilnius Jesuit Academy as early as the 17th century, where it was marked with a Latin inscription Hereticus (heresy). Later on, the judgement on the impropriety of the book for any good Christian was repeated in Polish language via inscription Zakazane (forbidden). Despite this the ban of the book did not hinder Dominik Siwicki (?–after 1800), the superior of the Dominican Monastery in Hrodna, from acquiring it in some unknown ways in the 18th century. In the mid-19th century the book made its way back to Vilnius University Library; it was brought back from Hrodna Dominican Monastery along with other books from the closed monasteries of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For the time being, the copy found at VU Library is considered the only copy of the book in the world. On request of the National Library of France, the book is being prepared for digitisation. The digital copy of the book will be available shortly through the Digital Collections of Vilnius University Library.
Sondra Rankelienė, 2020-11-24