President Gitanas Nausėda Visits the VU Library

On 21 November President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda visited the library of Vilnius University (VU). During the visit he was accompanied by Rector of Vilnius University, Professor Rimvydas Petrauskas.

"The library of Vilnius University is one of the largest and most important institutions of scientific infrastructure and historical heritage in Lithuania, having the status of national importance. Therefore, it is important to continuously pay attention to the preservation and digitisation of this heritage and to its opening to the public," says Professor Petrauskas, Rector of Vilnius University.

During his visit, the Head of State attended the exhibition "Started by Skorina: 500 Years of Vilnius Printing Press", displayed in P. Smuglevičius Hall and presented by its creators – senior librarian Dr. Ina Kažuro and librarian Mindaugas Marazas. The exhibition tells the story of the first printing houses in Vilnius and the books they printed, revealing the development of the Vilnius press from P. Skorina to the end of the 18th century.

In the Rare Print Repository, President Nausėda was introduced to manuscripts and rare prints by Head of the Manuscripts Department Dr. Inga Liepaitė and Head of the Rare Print Department Virginija Galvanauskaitė.

The President was shown the oldest document stored in the VU library (beginning of the 13th century), the VU diploma issued to the grandfather of Professor Joachim Lelewel, the manuscript of Andrius Milevskis "Fundamentals of Mathematical Disciplines" (1629–1637), and the manuscript of Antanas Baranauskas, which is included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Books that once belonged to the nobility were also presented – books belonging to Žygimantas Augustas, the Sapiegas family, the library of J. K. Chodkevičius, a book of Vilnius bookbinder Jokūbas Morkūnas, examples of book art, and publications related to economics, mathematics and cartography.

The 16th–17th century court books of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which are currently being restored in restoration and bookbinding workshops, their bindings, as well as Joan Blaeu's atlas "Geographiæ Blavianæ volvmen secvndvm" published in 1662 in Amsterdam, the tools of bookbinders and restorers, and types of bindings were presented to the President by Head of the Department of Conservation of the Documentary Heritage, Gediminas Bernotas, and restoration expert Sigitas Tamulis.