Metadata: Part of a Manuscript Fonds: Manuscript Collection “Borussica”
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių biblioteka
- Postal address:
- Žygimantų g. 1, Vilnius 01102
- Phone number:
- +370 5 262 9537
- Web address:
- http://www.mab.lt/
- Email:
- aptarnavimas@mab.lt
- Reference number:
- F. 15
- Title:
- Part of a Manuscript Fonds: Manuscript Collection “Borussica”
- Title (official language):
- Rankraščių fondo dalis: Rankraščių rinkinys „Borussica“
- Creator/accumulator:
- Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences
- Date(s):
- 1390/1918
- Language:
- German
- Polish
- Latin
- Extent:
- 456 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains manuscripts related to Prussian, Polish, and Lithuanian history, including material on the Crusader Orders and wars, Prussian history, culture, religious establishments, as well as various documents from Kaliningrad University. The collection contains a description of the thirteen-year war between the Crusaders and Poland from 1781 (file 145), record books of baptisms, marriages and deaths of the Lutheran church of Thierenberg (in the Kaliningrad area) (file 107), poems in Latin (file 341), regulations of the German Order and texts of knight’s prayers (file 349) and more. Most of the materials are related to Kaliningrad and its surrounding areas.
There are a couple of files of relevance to Jewish history. File 132 contains a metric book of deceased members of the Jewish community in Nasielsk from 1850 to 1862. File 162 contains letters and writings of John Sigismund, Georg Wilhelm, Frederick William and Frederick William I from 1619-1723, concerning provisions of peasant substations and postal services, procedures of trade for foreign merchants in the Kaliningrad harbour, Jewish trade in the territory of Prussia, restrictions of trade through Klaipėda, coining money, currency exchange rates, and registration of government bonds.
- Archival history:
- The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences was established in 1912 by the famous lawyer, public figure and bibliophile Tadeusz Stanisław Wróblewski. The Manuscript Collection “Borussica” was received in 1946 from the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic’s History Institute. The documents were brought from the destroyed Kaliningrad National Archive in 1946. The fonds was supplemented in 1977 and 1992.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Königsberg is the name for the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. It was originally an Old Prussian settlement, which then belonged to the State of the Teutonic Order, the Duchy of Prussia and the Kingdom of Prussia. The documents in this collection are from those periods. Jewish history in Kaliningrad began as early as 1530. In 1680 or 1682 Frederick William, the Great Elector, allowed the city's Jewish residents to rent space for prayer. Most Jews were merchants from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. A permanent Jewish community began to develop in Königsberg only by 1704, when a Jewish cemetery was designated. Jewish students were first admitted to the University of Königsberg in 1712.
- Access points: locations:
- Kaliningrad
- Nasielsk
- System of arrangement:
- There are 19 inventories.
- Finding aids:
- A list of files and inventory lists is available on the website of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://aleph.library.lt
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Julija Levin