Nežinomas XIX amžiaus pradžios giesmyno egzempliorius: identifikavimo galimybės

Abstract

In 2010, in the National Library of Bavaria in Munich, a copy of the Lithuanian hymnal Iß naujo pérweiʒdẽtos pagérintos Gieſmjû=Knygos (Revised and Improved Hymnal; MhG) was discovered, which was not noticed by the compilers of the national Lithuanian bibliography so far. This is a hymnal in a very typical format (in 12°) for Lithuania Minor; up to now this shape of the book is called “siaurikė” (narrow [book]) by the local Lithuanians. Munich’s copy is in quite good shape; only a page of the German preface and a page from the middle of the Lithuanian preface are missing. The Lithuanian preface is not signed. The hymnal consists of two parts (616 pp.) plus a prayer book bound together with consecutive pagination (all in all 791 pp.). The year of printing is not given, according to the usual practice in the 19th century. The year of publication is also absent from the catalog of the National Library of Bavaria; it contains only the presupposition that the book might have been printed about 1830. We can assume the approximate time of publication by the longhand inscription on the front pastedown page: “Giesmu Knigos ira Barbes Megalle iſz Kiauleikiu Weinam Diewui ant Garbes – 1834” (The hymnal belongs to Barbe Magalle from Kiauleikiai; Glory to God alone – 1834). Thus, the hymnal must have been printed before or in 1834. It is known that the first edition of Carl Gotthard Kebers’ hymnal was published in 1832 in two formats: wide (in 8°) and narrow (in 12°; the latter edition is known only from the secondary sources). The printer Georg Friedrich Hartung has attested that the typeforms of the 1832 edition were not dismantled; thus, the edition of 1836 must have been very similar to that of 1832. Analysis of the orthographical features has confirmed that Munich’s copy of the hymnal is closest to the tentative 1836 edition (which was produced using the old quires). [...]