On 1st April, the P. Smuglevičius Hall of Vilnius University Library hosted the presentation of a collection of articles on theses at Vilnius University in the 16th–18th centuries. Its authors are library staff members Dr. Ina Kažuro and Brigita Zorkienė.
During the event, prominent Lithuanian scholars – Dr. Jolita Liškevičienė, Dr. Živilė Nedzinskaitė, and Prof. Arvydas Pacevičius – discussed the culture of theses.
Early modern students’ theses are the predecessors of today’s bachelor’s and master’s theses as well as doctoral dissertations. Still, theses differed markedly from the latter in their structure: they consisted of a Latin text arranged in numbered points.
Unlike modern practice, theses were intended for public disputations rather than for presenting original research, and they were usually prepared by lecturers, with students merely defending them.
The authors of the articles in the volume “Thesis Culture in Lithuania and Europe in the 16th–18th Centuries: Traditions, Personalities, Heritage” examine the earliest studies of vacuum in Lithuania and their defence at Vilnius University, elements of visual art and poetry in theses, and many other topics.
