Beata Paškevica (National Library of Latvia, Latvia)
In 1675, St. James’ Church in Riga became the resident church of the Livonian Lutheran church leader, and on 9 August of the same year, the Swedish king confirmed the privilege for the founding of a printing house in Riga on the initiative of the general superintendent of Livonia, Johann Fischer. The technical director of this so-called ‘Royal Printing House’ under Fischer was Johann Georg Wilcken (born in Germany, died in Riga in 1701). In the summer, Fischer drew up the programme for the founding of the schools, and on 15 December 1675, the Lyceum was founded in the side chapel of St. James’ Church in Riga.
Before the work of preparing and printing the Latvian and Estonian Bible translations, which shaped the entire cultural history of Latvia and Estonia, Johann Fischer acted programmatically with regard to the future spiritual development of Livonia, one could even say prophetically in the pietistic and Moravian sense, by having the writings of Spener’s close colleague Johann Jacob Schütz, as well as those of Johann Arndt and Jan Amos Comenius printed, and also writing prefaces and adding prayers for the purpose of ‘raising piety’. The texts by Jan Amos Comenius printed in Riga were to become a practical aid for the realisation of the ideas put forward by Arndt and Spener. The conference paper will deal with the publishing activities of Johann Fischer as a intellectual and ideological programm.