Laurynas Ivinskis (; 1810-1881) was a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

n teacher, publisher, translator and lexicographer, from a Samogitian noble family. He is notable for a series of annual

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

s published between 1847 and 1877, in which he summarized the daily life of

Samogitia Samogitia or Žemaitija ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

n peasantry. He also published literary works by some of the most renowned local authors. He was the first to publish

Antanas Baranauskas Antanas Baranauskas ( la, Antonius Baranovski, pl, Antoni Baranowski; 17 January 1835 – 26 November 1902) was a Lithuanian poet, mathematician and Catholic bishop of Sejny. Baranauskas is best known as the author of the Lithuanian poem '' An ...

' most famous work, ''Anyksčių Šilelis''.

Biography

Ivinskis was born in Bambaliai on 15 August 1810. In 1841 Ivinskis passed the teacher's exams, and soon afterwards he received a

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

city teacher's certificate. He prepared the first Lithuanian calendar back in 1845, however due to lack of funds the calendar was not printed in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

until a year later. His calendar ''Metu skajtlus ukiszkas ant metu Wieszpaties'' circulated until the

Lithuanian press ban The Lithuanian press ban ( lt, spaudos draudimas) was a ban on all Lithuanian language publications printed in the Latin alphabet in force from 1865 to 1904 within the Russian Empire, which controlled Lithuania proper at the time. Lithuanian-lan ...

in 1864. The calendars were a form of an

almanach An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other ...

, informing the readers of upcoming

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

s and festivities, but also of basic news on medicine, veterinary science, agriculture and housekeeping. From 1852 they also included a literary section. Out of 22

Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 millio ...

calendars published between 1847 and 1864, and then again in 1877, three were in

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

, while the remaining 19 were in the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

, used by most people for the Lithuanian language. As publishing books and newspapers in Lithuanian was banned by the tsarist authorities, Ivinskis' calendars served the role of

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

for a large number of Lithuanian speakers. During the ban, Ivinskis lectured in a secret Lithuanian school, established in Lubiai. Ivinskis settled in

Rietavas Rietavas (; Samogitian: ''Rėitavs''; pl, Retów) is a city in Lithuania on the Jūra River. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 3,979. It is the capital of Rietavas municipality. The city is famous for building the first power ...

and lived there between 1874 and 1878. During this period he wrote a book entitled ''Pasauga'', which is considered as one of the first Lithuanian books dedicated to the theme of

environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...

. Apart from publishing his calendars, Ivinskis was also an active translator from German and English. He also started working on a Polish-Lithuanian and Russian-Lithuanian dictionary, as well as numerous works in the

Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...

. Ivinskis died on August 29, 1881, and was buried in

Kuršėnai Kuršėnai (; Samogitian dialect, Samogitian: ''Koršienā''; yi, קורשאַן ''Kurshon''; german: Kurschenen; pl, Kurszany; lv, Kuršēni) is the twenty-fifth largest city in Lithuania. According to the 2020 estimate, it had 10,829 resident ...

External links

Biography and works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivinskis, Laurynas 1810 births 1881 deaths Lithuanian publishers (people) Lithuanian translators Lithuanian schoolteachers Lithuanian lexicographers Translators to Lithuanian People from Kelmė District Municipality 19th-century translators 19th-century lexicographers