2025

Background of the Conference

Information about the publication of books in native languages comes from Germany, where in 1958 documents were discovered showing that in November 1525, the city council of Lübeck confiscated an entire barrel of Lutheran books in Estonian, Latvian, and Livonian. These books were most likely printed in Wittenberg and were on their way to Riga to be used for Lutheran church services in the local languages of the Old-Livonian Confederation. Although not a single copy from this unusual shipment has survived to the present day, the event is sufficiently well-documented to be considered the beginning of written literature in the native languages of both Estonia and Latvia.

As both Estonia and Latvia celebrated the 500th anniversary of the native language book in 2025, the theme of the 9th Estonian-Latvian History Conference held in Valga was 500 Years of Native Language Print.

In Estonia, the first Year of the Estonian Book was celebrated in 1935 as the 400th anniversary of the publication of Wanradt and Koell’s catechism, which was then regarded as the first book in Estonian. The next, the 450th anniversary of the Estonian book, was celebrated with the second Year of the Estonian Book in 1975–1976. The third Year of the Estonian Book was celebrated on an especially grand scale at the turn of the century, from St. George’s Day 2000 to St. George’s Day 2001, not only in Estonia but also abroad.

A special feature of this year’s Year of the Estonian Book was the creation of a contemporary tapestry. During the Estonian-Latvian History Conference on November 12, the not yet fully completed tapestry was displayed at the Valga Cultural Centre, where the conference took place. For the next four days, the tapestry was exhibited at the Valga Museum, where the embroidery dedicated to the Year of the Estonian Book continued.