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Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas

book by Jonas Bretkūnas

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ7234332 ↗
Source-derived summary

Postilė (full title: Postilla, tatai esti trumpas ir prastas ischguldimas euangeliu) is a 1000-page postil (collection of sermons and Bible commentaries) written in the Lithuanian language by Jonas Bretkūnas in 1591. It was designed for the purposes of Protestant priests serving Lithuanian communities in Lithuania Minor. The book was used until the 18th century. Postilė is one earliest works in Lithuanian that were not merely translations but also included original texts. It contains much ethnographic data about everyday life of the common people. About 30 copies of Postilė survive; 10 of them are kept in Lithuanian libraries and museums.

See also

Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas – the first printed book in the Lithuanian language, printed in 1547

Catechism of Mikalojus Daukša – the first Lithuanian Roman Catholic catechism published in 1595

Catechism of Merkelis Petkevičius – the first Lithuanian Protestant (Calvinist) catechism published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1598

Mokslas skaitymo rašto lietuviško – the first Catholic primer of the Lithuanian language

Universitas lingvarum Litvaniae – the oldest surviving grammar of the Lithuanian language

Grammatica Litvanica – the first printed grammar of the Lithuanian language

References

Further reading

Aleknevičienė, Ona (2005). Jono Bretkūno Postilė: Studija, faksimilė ir kompaktinė plokštelė (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla. ISBN 9986-668-96-4.

Editorial summary

“Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas” enters the record as book by Jonas Bretkūnas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Postil, Jonas and Bretkūnas can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1000, 1591, 1547, 1595—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Postil, Jonas and Bretkūnas.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Postil, Jonas and Bretkūnas provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7234332. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1000, 1591, 1547 and 1595.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas primary sources, Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas archive and Postil research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Postil of Jonas Bretkūnas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.