Information About the Living Nature and Spread of Natural and Scientific Knowledge in Publications and Manuscripts in Ukraine in the 18th Century

The study of issues of the history of the formation and development of branch book printing in the territory of Ukraine is conditioned by the need to study the origins of modern information resources from various branches of natural sciences, as well as insufficient coverage and analytical processing of the array of old prints and manuscripts of the 17th–18th centuries natural and scientific subjects, in particular from the sciences of living nature. The problems of the origin, creation, distribution, and functioning of life sciences publications that were printed on the territory of Ukraine in the 18th century, and the characteristics of their importance as a separate phenomenon in the development of science, culture, and enlightenment in Ukrainian society, have not yet been comprehensively studied. In Viktor Sokolov’s article “Information about living nature and the spread of natural and scientific knowledge in publications and manuscripts in Ukraine in the 18th century” on the basis of the analysis of primary sources and materials of scientific publications, the peculiarities of the development of natural and scientific book printing in the territory of Ukraine, the formation of the repertoire of publications and the functioning of books from various branches of science about living nature in the 18th century are highlighted. Not pretending to fully study all aspects of the study of publications and manuscripts about living nature in Ukraine in the 18th century, the author set the main goal of researching the historical conditions of their creation, distribution and functioning; to determine the main trends and features of the development of book printing of works that described and characterized the phenomena of living nature, as well as to reveal the significance of individual books of the proposed topic in the scientific and cultural and educational development of Ukraine in the 18th century. The research methodology consists in applying both general scientific study methods (description, comparison, analogy, deduction, induction, analysis, etc.) and historical (historical-comparative, historical-typological, chronological, etc.) research methods. The functional method was used in the study of the role of the natural science book and the activity of printers. The study of the book publishing repertoire was carried out using analytical-thematic and structural-typological methods. Statistical and bibliographic methods were also used in the work, which helped to consistently reveal the functions and dynamics of books that provided information from various branches of life sciences. The scientific novelty of the work is that, for the first time, an array of publications and manuscripts on living nature sciences, which were created or functioned on the territory of Ukraine in the 18th century, was analyzed; the genre-typological and thematic composition of the mentioned publications was investigated (on the example of the characteristics of individual books of the mentioned topic, their content, composition of authors, polygraphic design, centers of creation, etc. were analyzed); the functional purpose and features of the use of books from various branches of life science are characterized; their importance in the spread of natural and scientific knowledge and enlightenment in Ukraine in the 18th century is clarified. Conclusions. It was established that the socio-practical needs of everyday life, education, science, and cultural development prompted the emergence and distribution of natural science books, in particular on the sciences of living nature, and industry book printing in general, simultaneously contributing to the formation of various branches of natural sciences, including from biology (for example, such as physiology, microbiology, histology, etc.), determined their further development in the future. It has been proven that book printing from certain branches of scientific and practical activity, in particular from medicine, veterinary medicine, and economics, had a greater demand than other publications on natural and scientific topics and almost always brought profit to the publishers. Works from the specified fields of knowledge, which had information from various branches of life sciences, were willingly published by printing houses of educational institutions, monasteries, official and private printing houses, because, in addition to profit, there was an acute practical necessity and a certain social need in their printing. It was found that, despite the fact that the majority of books on this topic corresponded to the nature of local needs, some publications are gaining international importance (for example, the works of J.-K. Gaur, J. A. Wolstein, etc.). It is substantiated that on the territory of Ukraine in the 18th century publications that contained information from various branches of wildlife sciences were designed for a wide range of readers: students, teachers, specialists and educated people of the Ukrainian population at that time; they were distinguished by an accessible, popular presentation of the material, a practical orientation, and a breadth of coverage of the material. Among natural and scientific publications, by genre and typological features, the largest number is recommendation and practical advisors. A certain number of publications can be classified as educational and scientific literature. It was found that in the second half of the 18th century in Ukraine, works on botany, zoology, and other living nature sciences by researchers such as Malpighi, Bachmann, Haller, Buffon, Linnaeus, etc. were read by scientists, teachers, students, cultural and educational figures, and the educated population. However, books were the most common among natural science works at that time from medicine and veterinary medicine. Among the medical publications that were printed in Ukraine in the 18th century, in addition to medical advisors, the most published works dealt with the treatment of smallpox, measles, apoplexy, various infectious diseases, and obstetrics. Among publications on veterinary medicine, printers gave more preference to works on horse breeding. It has been proven that natural science books in Ukraine in the 18th century, in particular from various branches of living nature sciences, were one of the most important factors in the development of scientific thought, changes in people’s worldview, and had a direct impact on real life. It is motivated by the fact that domestic book printing on natural sciences, in particular publications from various branches of life sciences, satisfied public needs in this literature and, in part, reflected the level of development of one or another branch of science in Ukraine. It was revealed that in the 18th century in Ukraine, scientific research in various branches of science about living organisms was reduced mainly to the accumulation and description of various information about the flora and fauna of the country. In particular, industrial and hunting animals, agricultural pests, economic and medicinal plants were studied, the description and characteristics of which had a practical direction. It was revealed that the thematic and genre-typological syncretism of publications reflected the corresponding state of development of science, a certain uncertainty of the target purpose, however, with the development of production, various spheres of education, science and social and practical activities of people, the development of the very types, types and genres of publications gradually took place. However, among natural and scientific publications of the 18th century, due to the syncretism of genre-typological features, it becomes problematic to separate, for example, scientific works from textbooks. Moreover, in such sciences as medicine and veterinary medicine, where there was a lot of information from various branches of knowledge about living nature, most printed books were at the same time practical advisors, since it was the practical needs of life that prompted the development, for example, such branches of living nature sciences as physiology, microbiology, histology, etc. It was established that in the 18th century progressive scientists of Ukraine were aware of the achievements of science in the same way as the cultural figures of Western Europe. In the original, they got acquainted with the works of Buffon, Linnaeus, Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Leibniz and other European scientists, as evidenced by the catalogs of libraries of educational institutions and monasteries, descriptions of book collections of private individuals (scientists, teachers, Cossack elders, etc.), letters and other documents. If by the 18th century scientific literature entered Ukraine in the form of translations made in Poland into Latin or Polish, already from the second half of the 18th century, new cultural currents and scientific achievements of advanced European countries begin to spread much faster in Ukraine in the form of works in the original language than in the previous period. Of course, due to the lack of independence and certain historical conditions that developed in the country in the 18th century, the distribution of the latest Western European publications, to a certain extent, «compensated» for the insufficient development of science, education, and natural science book printing in Ukraine compared to the advanced countries of Europe.