Koncepcja opracowania inwentarza wizytacji i inwentarzy diecezji żmudzkiej do 1845 roku

The paper proposes to compile an inventory of visitation records and inventories of churches and parishes in the Samogitian Diocese from its creation until 1845, i.e. until the last full visitation in the diocese before it was expanded. It is necessary to gather data from source materials and organise them because primary sources are scattered in various archives, mainly in Vilnius, Kaunas and St Petersburg. It is estimated that the number of pages containing visitation protocols and inventories of the Samogitian Diocese amounts to several tens of thousands. In order to solve this problem, the article postulates the creation of an inventory of visitations and church inventories, an excerpt of which is included in the appendix to the article. Such an inventory would include basic information about the history of the churches as well as the year the document was prepared, its exact location in the particular archive with its archival reference number, and notes that characterise the primary source and provide information on its publication in a source edition if applicable. This is not a completely new idea in Polish scholarship, but the concept has been modified by the author and may prove helpful for many historians. It will certainly facilitate and expedite any research into the history of the Catholic Church in Samogitia. Appended to the article is a sample inventory for the parish church and two chantries in the town of Radziwiliszki. This is an inventory of 81 visitations and inventories, which roughly constitutes three hundredths of the total source material available for the Samogitian Diocese.