CHAIRMAN OF LITHUANIAN PARLIAMENT
SPEAKS AT LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Date: 6/20/97 5:07 PM
From: Lithuanian Embassy, Washington, DC.
June 20, 1997 For immediate release

Chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament Vytautas Landsbergis spoke yesterday at the U.S. Library of Congress on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the publication of the first book in the Lithuanian language. The first Lithuanian book – Catechismus – was published in Königsberg, Prussia, in 1547. The author was a Lithuanian Protestant clergyman by the name of Martynas Mažvydas. Only two original copies of the book exist, now held in Lithuanian and Polish university libraries. In his lecture, Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis, who is also a noted musicologist, spoke of the tremendous significance the Mažydas book had in the development of the Lithuanian nation, whose cultural survival was often threatened by more powerful neighbors. Catechismus was not only a religious book, but also the first Lithuanian primer, and contained hymns and the first printed Lithuanian secular poem. The commemoration in Washington was organized jointly by the Library of Congress and the Embassy of Lithuania. A special exhibit of selections from the Library's collection of about 20,000 Lithuanian items was prepared for the commemoration of the publication of Catechismus.