Grób i komemoracja wielkiego księcia Aleksandra Witolda w katedrze wileńskiej w kontekście upamiętnienia Władysława Jagiełły w katedrze krakowskiej i propagandy jagiellońskiej XIV–XVI w.

Abstract

The tomb and commemoration of Grand Duke Alexander Vytautas in the Vilnius cathedral in the context of the commemoration of Władysław Jagiełło (Jogaila) in the Kraków cathedral and Jagiellonian propaganda in the fourteenth–sixteenth centuries The article is a critical analysis of the burial and commemoration of Grand Duke of Lithuania, Alexander Vytautas the Great (ca 1350–1430) in the Vilnius cathedral and at the same time an attempt to revise the previous historiography dealing with the subject. The author examines the question of the location of the tomb, its original form, especially the shape and placement of the tombstone funded in 1535 by Queen Bona Sforza and made by Bernardino de Gianotis. He also discusses the commemoration of Vytautas with regard to the Jagiellons’ dynastic propaganda (in connection with the beginning of the cult of St. Casimirus) and creation of memorial sites. The author presents the hitherto unused handwritten copy of the inscription from Vytautas’ tombstone from the mid-16th century, different in the formulation of the content of the inscription from its well-known version from the second half of the 17th century. In addition, he comments on the story of the burial and commemoration of Alexander Vytautas from the second half of the 17th century to the 20th century, referring also to some insinuations concerning the purported discovery of the Grand Duke’s tomb and its robbery by Poles in the first half of the 20th century