The tsar’s gift of 1829 – the books from the Vilnius University transferred to the Åbo Academy University Library in Helsinki

Abstract

The paper discusses the historical circumstances of a book collection gift to the burnt library of the Åbo Academy, which then belonged to the Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire. Such a support was organised by the supreme government of Russian Empire and Emperor Nicholas I. Examination of official documents (The Book of Donations to the Vilnius University, 1820-1832; The Activity Daybook, 1823-1832) of the Vilnius University Library; Lists of donated books, preserved in the National Library of Finland and in the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, enabled specification of chronology of this charity act, discovering its effectors in Vilnius, and provided qualitative and quantitative parameters of donated books. It was identified, that the shipment of books delivered from Vilnius no earlier than 1829 February 28, consisted of 1481 volumes, mainly duplicate books on different topics, which were deposited to the Helsinki University. Alexander Wiktor Bohatkiewicz, a librarian and a bibliographer in the Vilnius University Library, played a crucial role in the selection of the books. At present, the best part of the donated books is preserved in the National Library of Finland. Specimens from private libraries of Georg Albinius, Nicolaus Decius, Fabian Birkowski, Leo Sapieha, Jan Kazimierz Wojsznarowicz, Georg Forster, Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus etc., and also from institutional libraries of Jesuit Colleges in Grodno, Słuck, Smoleńsk etc. were found within this collection. Completed bibliographical and provenance research of survived books makes a premise to a historical digital reconstruction of the donated collection. The results of provenance research may contribute greatly to the synthetic library history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.