It was the first recorded appearance of the name of Lithuania in the Quedlinburg Annals in 1009 that bestowed meaning upon the subsequent 1000 years of the Lithuanian history. In 2009 Lithuania solemnly celebrated the millennium of this event. The celebration involved the organisation of exhibitions, conferences and other events, as well as the publication of a number of books. As a commemoration of this grand occasion, Vilnius Art Academy’s Art Research Institute prepared the publication Lietuva 1009–2009 (Lithuania 1009–2009). Thirty-eight authors—historians, art historians, cultural historians and specialists from a number of fields—produced the seventy essays that lay within the twenty chapters of this book.

The English version of this book was already being envisaged during the preparation of the Lithuanian version, although the realisation of this project only became possible four years later—when the project received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania.

The Lithuanian Millennium: History, Art and Culture