The Russian manuscript of the Third Statute of Lithuania from the collection of the Warsaw Public Library

Abstract

The Third Statute of Lithuania was published in its original Ruthenian version in 1588, while only the Polish translation of this code was being published since 1614. However, the needs of legal transactions, and sometimes the willingness to take advantage of the tried and tested models, resulted in the creation of translations into German and Russian. One of these Russian translations can be found in the Warsaw Public Library (file reference number Akc. 286). On the basis of the paper and handwriting, one can initially assume that it comes from the turn of the 18^th and the 19^th century. In terms of language, it has a lot in common with the manuscript kept in the Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių library (file reference number F. 22–62) in Vilnius. However, it is distinctly different from the manuscript from the first half of the 17^th century which was published in 1916 by Ivan I. Lappo.