Ratio, affectus, sensus: Literary Culture of the Baroque in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
In 2025, we will commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first publication of Matheus Casimirus Sarbievius' most famous Latin poetry collection 'Lyricorum libri tres' (1625). This has led to 2025 being declared the Year of Baroque Literature in Lithuania. The eminent Jesuit neo-Latin poet of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sarbievius, has been hailed as the Christian Horace and the Sarmatian Horace. His theoretical thoughts on poetry and rhetoric are still highly regarded and have inspired new research on other concurrent themes and authors. This anniversary provides an opportunity to explore the extent and diversity of Baroque literary culture, which has seen a surge of interest in recent decades, both in the academic world and in popular culture. Therefore, the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, together with the Faculty of Philology of Vilnius University, is organising an international academic conference "Ratio, affectus, sensus: Literary Culture of the Baroque in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" on 25-27 September 2025 in the baroque city of Vilnius.
The aim of the multidisciplinary conference is to stimulate discussion on the literary culture of the "long seventeenth century" (from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th century) in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This historical period, associated with dramatic changes and a general cultural crisis, is often described in contradictory terms and in constant tension between reason and senses, rigid structure and passions, classifications and impressions, etc. By embracing this contradiction, we invite an exploration of the theme in question through the lens of this dynamic interplay between reason (ratio), emotion (affectus) and the senses (sensus), which can be perceived in various genres of the period, such as poetry, biography, hagiography, rhetoric, private and public correspondence, and so on. The importance of the modern approach lies not only in what it can reveal about the Baroque in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but also about subsequent and contemporary literary culture, as scholars have demonstrated the continuing influence of a 'Baroque spirit'.
Keynote speakers
Ona Dilytė-Čiurinskienė
Senior Researcher, The Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
Prof Stephen Harrison
Professor of Latin literature, University of Oxford
Olena Matushek
The Practice of Acumen in the Sermons of Lazar Baranovych
Olena Matushek
Karazin Kharkiv National University
The Practice of Acumen in the Sermons of Lazar Baranovych
Keywords: wittiness, Baroque sermon, Lazar Baranovych, Vilnius Academy, Kyiv-Mohyla College
Background. Lazar Baranovych was the person who brought and implemented the theory of acumen into the practice of preaching in the Kyivan Metropolitanate. According to his contemporaries Ioanykiy Galiatows’kyi and Lavrentiy Krshchonovych, he graduated from the Vilnius Academy and the Jesuit College of Kalish, where he became acquainted with the theory of consepticism. Nineteenth-century scholars noted in Baranovych`s sermons witty remarks (Stroev) and a sharp mind for comparisons and contrasts (Porfiriev). Our article aims to determine the artistic functions of acumen in Lazar Baranovych`s sermons. We will use discursive and semiotic methods of analysis. According to M. Korolko, «In the Baroque period the theory of invention was supplemented by the theory of acumen, thanks to which rhetorical invention was transformed from the science of inventing arguments into the science of inventing witty and sharp statements or concepts». R. Lachmann noted that «within the framework of metaphorical argumentation and argumentative metaphor, aesthetic and cognitive techniques are combined», i.e., acumen belongs to the competence of both inventio and elocutio. Acumen (wit) was inherent in most of the styles mentioned in the rhetorics and poetics of the seventeenth century. Maciej Sarbiewski presents several general ways of creating a concept. Summarizing his teachings, R. Lachmann names three of them: it compares a case to a topos; two topoi of the same order; and two topoi of different orders. Lazar Baranovych often resorted to extensive analogies. He compared two typologically similar situations — the Transfiguration of the Lord on Tabor and His Crucifixion on Calvary — contrasting the portrait characteristics of the main image. The text of the Great Friday sermon is based on the parallel and contrast between the First Adam and Christ (the Second Adam). Balthasar Gracian considers formulating «witty tasks and tricky questions» a separate point of inventing acumens. Lazar Baranovych was a master of this. He often turned a topic into a sentence with a witty rhetorical question. Names were also a source of wittiness. Using the deep symbolic meaning of the name «Jacob», Lazar Baranovych denotes the church. The convergence of the two signifiers is based on a common characteristic. The bishop used linguistic witticisms not only in printed texts but also in live communication. When Dymytriy Tuptalo came to him for a blessing to become hegumen, Lazar Baranovych greeted him with a pun: «Let Dymytriy get a miter!» Conclusions. On the one hand, the linguistic and stylistic design of the content of Lazar Baranovych`s sermons corresponded to the features of the European Baroque style based on wittiness. The aesthetic influence on the recipient was manifested in the witty formulation of topics, detailed metaphors, paradoxes, contrasts, similes, analogies, antitheses, exquisite expressions, wordplay, and statements containing contradictions. On the other hand, the concepts helped to convey the meaning of Christian holidays and dogmas in an original way.
