Studies of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Volume IX
The book cover features Sigismund Vasa, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, who recaptured Smolensk on June 13, 1611, after the city had been under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Moscow for nearly a hundred years. The ruler’s victorious military expedition was crowned by a day of triumph, ceremoniously celebrated in Vilnius on July 24, 1611. This is evidenced by a unique surviving manuscript dedicated to the ruler, Dies Triumphi, which is decorated with golden letters and verses laid out to recreate triumphal arches. After 400 years, this Latin manuscript and its Lithuanian translation is being published. The ruler’s reception ceremony and the historical circumstances of the regaining of Smolensk are discussed in introductory articles by Vilnius University Prof. Eugenija Ulčinaitė and Dr. Eugenijus Savičevas.
ISBN 978-609-8061-06-2