Teodor Narbutt

Teodor Narbutt (8 November 1784 in the village of Szawry near Hrodna – 27 November 1864 in Vilna) was a writer of Lithuanian descent, Romantic historian and military engineer in service of Russian Empire. He is best remembered as the author of a ten-volume Polish-language history of Lithuania from the early Middle Ages to the Union of Lublin.

Teodor Narbutt was born in 1784 near Hrodna (modern Belarus) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, to a notable szlachta family of Trąby coat of arms. Early in his youth his fatherland was partitioned between Russia, Austria and Prussia. After graduating from a Piarist college at Lyubeshiv, Narbutt entered the Vilna Academy, where in 1803 he graduated in engineering. He then moved to St. Petersburg, where he joined the Cadet Corps. He served in the Imperial Russian Army, where he became a captain in the field engineering corps. He took part in the 1807 and 1812 Russian campaigns against Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1809 he constructed the Bobruysk fortress (modern Babruysk, Belarus), for which he was awarded the Order of Saint Anna.

At the same time, since 1813 he became interested in archaeology and started to organize numerous excavations across the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His passion for history, culture and folklore of the lands of former Grand Duchy was first shown after 1817, at which date he started to write historical articles for various Vilna-based newspapers. He also started to collect copies of documents related to the ancient history of Lithuania, which were published in 1846 in an anthology Pomniki do dziejów litewskich (Monuments of Lithuanian History). Among the most notable primary sources he published was the 16th-century (?) Letopis of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, also known as the Bychowiec Chronicle, after its founder Aleksander Bychowiec.

...
Wikipedia