Edycje akt sejmikowych z terenu Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego
The Editions of Regional Councils’ Records From the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to present the current state of editing sejmiks’ records from the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1566 to 1794. Although the first printed edition of Lithuanian (Vilnius) sejmiks’ resolutions took place as late as the end of the 18th century, in contrast to the lands of the Polish Crown, Polish historians took little interest in them in later centuries. A relatively large number of sejmik records were published in the 19th century by Vilnius Archaeographical Commission, but one should be extremely critical of these editions, as it was clearly commissioned to shape the picture of the Commonwealth (and especially the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) through the prism of political and confessional requirements. For Polish scholars of the past, on the other hand, it was primarily the Polish lands that were important and the situation was not improved by Poland’s regaining of independence in 1918. Therefore, I would like to present the views of some of these historians on the need for such editions (especially at the historians’ congress in Vilnius in 1935), their form and the achievements of editing sejm records in the 19th – 21st centuries, divided into volumes strictly presenting such records (published by the abovementioned Archaeographical Commission), occasional and incidental editions, and the achievements of Russian, Polish, Lithuanian and Byelorussian historiography. What are the already visible effects of the veritable explosion of editions of sejmik records in the last decade and what are the prospects? In which research centres have editing projects been undertaken and what are the teams carrying them out?

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