Forma Chrikʃtima (1559) from a formal perspective. Acrostic by priest M. Mažvydas

Abstract

Comparison is the main research tool, but the comparative procedure must be consistently stratified. When we examine the 1559 acrostic, we must compare it with (1) other acrostics by Mažvydas; (2) earlier acrostics that represent the same literary tradition; and (3) identical and similar tools of combinatorial poetics that were realised in a broader historical-cultural context. This in itself sets out the expanding fields of comparative analysis: the indirect means of expression used in the Catechism of 1547, the acrostics of Francisc Scorina, and the acrostics created in the 16th century by European intellectuals from other countries. Despite the national prominence of Mažvydas in Lithuania, his acrostics have not been the subject of in-depth (comparative) research. This article aims to clarify the role (form and content) of the acrostic in the 1559 publication Forma Chrikʃtima, to reveal its interaction with the translated sources, and to identify a possible connection (in terms of identical features) with the acrostics of P. Skorina.