| Abstract [eng] |
The aim of this article is to investigate the history of the Cyrillic manuscript transcription of Selenographia (1647), which details Moon observation – the work of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth astronomer Johannes Hevelius (Jan Heweliusz, 1611–1687). The codex is relevant in two aspects: first, as an example of a late-17th century book, incorporating the characteristics of both a manuscript and a printed publication; and second – as an example of scientific literature in the Commonwealth. Hevelius is a well-known sciencist. The researcher is recognized as the first precise topographer of the Moon. He has composed a catalogue of 1564 stars, discovered four comets, and defined new boundaries of several constellations. In historiography, the manuscript translation of Selenographia has been known since the end of the 19th century. However, in the beginning of the 20th century, the transcript was equated to a piece owned by Tsar Feodor III Alexeyevich (1661–1682), which was present in his library in 1682. The manuscript has been studied by multiple linguists, astronomers, and museologists from various countries; however, it is still yet to receive attention from Lithuanian scientists. This article aims to clarify the currently available scientific information regarding the manuscript version of J. Hevelius’s work Selenographia, which is presently kept in the Manuscript Department of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (LMAVB). This study also seeks to answer the following questions: whether the scientists of the GDL were aware of the piece and its Slavic translation, if there is a possibility that the codex may have belonged to the library of Tsar Feodor III Alexeyevich, and what are the history and the lifecycle of the codex. The object of this investigation is a manuscript codex (LMAVB RS F19–318) archived in the LMAVB. A digital copy of an exemplar archived in the Zurich ETH Library was used for comparative analysis.... |
