On the Manuscript of the Composition ‘Polowanie’ [Hunting], or ‘Heca albo polowanie na zająca’ [Battue, or Hunting the Hare] from the Collection of the Missionary Priests in Vilnius

Alicja Dacewicz

Abstract

The text concerns two manuscript volumes currently held in the Music Section (Muzikos Skyrius) of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania (Lietuvos Nacionalinės Martyno Mažvydo Bibliotekos) under the shelf-mark Mkrn-11. The Lithuanian researchers Laima Budzinauskienė and Agnė Januškaitė have called the manuscripts the ‘Vilnius Seminary Book’. The author of this article concludes that the manuscript volumes of music held in Vilnius were written in 1828 at the Congregation of the Mission of St Vincent de Paul on Saviour’s Mount in Vilnius and until the closure of the Mission House in Vilnius in 1844 remained the property of the Congregation’s seminarium internum. It was not until 1844 that the music-related documents were transferred to the Library of the Vilnius Diocesan Roman Catholic Seminary, located in the post-Carmelite Church of St George, where they have survived to the present day. The composition Polowanie [Hunting], held in a collection of sacred music, is in fact an incomplete copy of the opera Heca albo polowanie na zająca. Anonimowa krotochwila myśliwska w jednym akcie [Battue, or hunting the hare. An anonymous hunting farce in one act].