Events
A Gift of the Giedraitis Family to the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences
11 09 2024
On 6 September 2024, guests from the United Kingdom – the descendants of the Giedraitis family – visited the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and brought a valuable cultural cargo that bears the legacy of Mykolas Jonas Henrikas Giedraitis (Michał Jan Henryk Giedroyć), one of the representatives of this honourable family.
His son Michal Graham Dowmont Giedroyć with his family were welcomed by Dr Sigitas Narbutas, the director of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Jūras Banys, the president of the Academy.
The guests and the hosts on the terrace of the Wroblewski Library. Left to right, Prof. Jūras Banys, the president of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Jan Henryk Giedroyc, M. J. H. Giedraitis’s grandson, Michal Graham Dowmont Giedroyc and Dorothee Giedroyc, M. J. H. Giedraitis’s son and his wife, Ana Venclovienė, the deputy head of the Acquisitions Department of the Wroblewski Library, and Dr Sigitas Narbutas, the director of the library.
Among the artefacts that the guests donated to the library this time was a fountain pen of Władysław Raczkiewicz, the last president of the Second Republic of Poland, portraits of Merkelis Giedraitis, Bishop of Samogitia, of Senator Tadeusz of the Second Republic of Poland, and of M. J. H. Giedraitis himself; also, landscape views of Vilnius, and other artefacts of art and writing.
The artefacts gifted to the Wroblewski Library by the Giedraitis family.
It is worth remembering that in 2009, M. J. H. Giedraitis, a descendant of the dukes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, donated a collection of over 1100 books and other printed materials to the Wroblewski Library. It mostly consisted of studies on the development of the Lithuanian-Polish state in the context of European history and books published in London, Oxford, and Cambridge between the 1960s and the 1980s. As she was handing over this gift, Rosemary Giedroyć remarked, ‘As Michael's wife and companion, I know how sincerely he loved this library and spent many happy hours amongst the folios you see here. It lasted over sixty years. This is a proof of his love for his homeland, Lithuania, and here you see his library taking on a new home.’
M. J. H. Giedraitis was an aeronautical engineer and a historian. He researched the Middle Ages in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the history of the Giedraitis ducal family. From 1993, he financed and coordinated fundraising for various cultural projects in Lithuania. In 1999, for example, he provided financial assistance to the construction of the monument to Bishop Merkelis Giedraitis and Mikalojaus Daukša in Varniai, a town in Samogitia. In 2018, the urn with the ashes of M. J. H. Giedraitis, who died in Oxford, was buried in the crypt of the Giedraitis family in the Chapel of Blessed Mykolas Giedraitis in the Church of Saint Lawrence in Videniškiai.
The Giedraitis was a noble family of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania whose origins date back to the thirteenth century. The list of the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of 1528, includes as many as 80 Giedraitises of ducal descent. It was a dynamic and broad family, and its descendants accomplished many significant things for Lithuania. For instance, Mykolas Giedraitis (c.1425–1485) was a monk beatified in 2018 (he spent part of his life in Lithuania). In the second half of the sixteenth century–the early seventeenth century, Merkelis Giedraitis (c. 1536-1609), Bishop of Samogitia and a figure of Lithuanian literature, stood out significantly: he encouraged the printing of the first Lithuanian books in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the works of Mikalojus Daukša (c. 1527–1613), a Lithuanian priest, humanist, and creator of early Lithuanian texts; he also educated Lithuanian-speaking priests.
It is truly gratifying that the connection between the Giedraitis family and Lithuania remains strong.
Dr Rolandas Maskoliūnas, Chief Specialist for Public Relations
Photography Virginija Valuckienė
Translated by Diana Barnard
For the Hipocentaur coat of arms of the Giedraitis family, see: https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/giedraiciai/
