Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic : : Sixteenth-Century Ethnographic Accounts of Baltic Paganism / / ed. by Francis Young.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2022
• HerausgeberIn: Young, Francis,
• Place / Publishing House: Leeds : : ARC Humanities Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: ARC - Foundations
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (192 p.)

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the last European polity to renounce paganism and accept the Christian faith, at the end of the fourteenth century. However, the conversion of the Baltic region continued into the early modern period and the ongoing pagan beliefs and practices of Lithuanians and Prussians excited the interest of early ethnographers. This volume brings together Jan Łasicki's On the Gods of the Samogitians, Jan Malecki’s Little Book on the Sacrifices and Idolatry of the Old Prussians, and other Latin texts on Baltic paganism, none of which have hitherto been translated into English. A critical introduction places these texts, which are of interest far beyond the field of Central European history, in the contexts of early modern ethnography, Baltic history, and Reformation religious polemic.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Editor’s Note -- Translator’s Note -- TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS -- 1. Cosmographia Pii Papae in Asiae et Europae eleganti descriptione / 1. The Cosmography of Pope Pius II in an Elegant Description of Europe and Asia -- 2. Historiae Polonicae / 2. Polish Histories -- 3. Vita et mores Sbignei cardinalis / 3. The Life and Manners of Cardinal Zbigniew -- 4. Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis Asiana et Europeana et de contentis in eis / 4. Treatise on the Two Asian and European Sarmatias and on Those Things Contained in Them -- 5. De Borussiae antiquitatibus libri duo / 5. Two Books on the Antiquities of the Prussians (1518) -- 6. Catechismusa prasty szadei / 6. Simple Words of Catechism (1547) [Pastoral Preface] -- 7. De moribus Tartarorum, Lituanorum et Moschorum / 7. On the Customs of the Tatars, Lithuanians, and Muscovites -- 8. Sarmatiae Europeae descriptio / 8. A Description of Sarmatian Europe -- 9. Libellus de sacrificiis et idolatria veterum Borussorum, Livonum, aliarumque vicinarum gentium / 9. Little Book on the Sacrifices and Idolatry of the Old Prussians, Livonians, and Other Neighbouring Peoples -- 10. De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum, et falsorum Christianorum / 10. On the Gods of the Samogitians, of the Other Sarmatians, and of the False Christians -- Bibliography -- Lithuanian Summary / Santrauka -- Index