On the occasion of the 447th birthday of Vilnius University, we exhibited the oldest Lithuanian book – Martynas Mažvydas‘ “Catechism”.
Visitors could also leaf trough the facsimile of “Catechism”, its precise copy. According to specialists, even they find it difficult to distinguish it from the original.
Although this book, published in 1547, might have had between 200 to 300 copies, only two of them have survived to the present day. One of them is kept at the University of Torun, while the other one is held at our Library.
The entire novel could be written on the “Catechism‘s” journey after its publishing: the idea of the book was born in Vilnius, the book was printed in Königsberg, sold in Berlin, kept in Odessa for almost one hundred years, and it reached its final destination, which is Lithuania, only in 1956.
This was thanks to Levas Vladimirovas, then director of Vilnius University Library, whose efforts brought 15,000–18,000 rare books to the Library.
