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.
- COVER
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Editor’s Note
- Translator’s Note
- TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS
- 1. Cosmographia Pii Papae in Asiae et Europae eleganti descriptione
- 2. Historiae Polonicae
- 3. Vita et mores Sbignei cardinalis
- 4. Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis Asiana et Europeana et de contentis in eis
- 5. De Borussiae antiquitatibus libri duo
- 6. Catechismusa prasty szadei
- 7. De moribus Tartarorum, Lituanorum et Moschorum
- 8. Sarmatiae Europeae descriptio
- 9. Libellus de sacrificiis et idolatria veterum Borussorum, Livonum, aliarumque vicinarum gentium
- 10. De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum, et falsorum Christianorum
- Bibliography
- Lithuanian Summary / Santrauka
- Index
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