Научная статья на тему '“Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki” on a prominent Naturalist Jean E. Gilibert'

“Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki” on a prominent Naturalist Jean E. Gilibert Текст научной статьи по специальности «История и археология»

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Ключевые слова
CONFERENCES / HISTORY OF BOTANY / GILIBERT JEAN EMMANUEL (1741-1814) / КОНФЕРЕНЦИИ / ИСТОРИЯ БОТАНИКИ / ЖИЛИБЕР ЖАН ЭММАНУЭЛЬ (1741-1814)

Аннотация научной статьи по истории и археологии, автор научной работы — Köhler Piotr

Frenchman Jean Emmanuel Gilibert (1741-1814) was undoubtedly the most outstanding figure among scientists naturalists working in the second half of the eighteenth century in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His activity during the nearly eight-year stay, first in Grodno, then in Vilna, had a considerable influence on Polish botany. He published a series of works devoted to the Lithuanian plants. The most important of these publications are: Flora Lituanica inchoata (Grodno Vilnius 1781-1782), Exercitia Phytologica (Lyon 1792), Le Calendrier de flore pour l’année 1778 autour de Grodno et pour l’année 1808 autour de Lyon (Lyon 1809). J.E. Gilibert initiated by his activities the development of modern botany in Poland. In 2014, falls the 200th anniversary of his death. On this occasion, the Institute of the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences organized on 25 and 26 September 2014 an international conference in Warsaw. For two days, scientists from France, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine presented the results of his research on the life, activities, achievements and scientific legacy of J. E. Gilibert. The reviewed number of "Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki” [Quarterly History of Science and Technology] contains papers delivered during the conference.

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Текст научной работы на тему «“Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki” on a prominent Naturalist Jean E. Gilibert»

Сегодня достижения в области современных биотехнологий, биофизики, биохимии, генетики и молекулярной биологии оправдывают отнесение биологии к ведущим наукам нашего времени. Современные представления о молекулярных механизмах превращения веществ и энергии, наследственности и изменчивости, мышечной деятельности и проведения нервного импульса, механизмах фотосинтеза, иммунитета и синтеза белка были созданы за последние десятилетия.

В биологии и теснейшим образом с ней связанной медициной на наших глазах происходит столь давно ожидаемая революция. Одним из её признаков можно считать все большую тягу биологов и медиков к общей теории функционирования живых систем. Все чаще встречаются словосочетания «теоретическая биология» и «теоретическая медицина». На разных языках выходят журналы и организуются международные симпозиумы по этим направлениям.

В биографических очерках перед читателем предстают не только судьбы выдающихся учёных-биохимиков, сотрудников Института экспериментальной медицины, но и личности их многочисленных учеников и родственников.

Это издание представляет интерес не только для узких специалистов, но и для широкого круга биологов и медиков, а также для студентов вузов и всех, кто интересуется историей науки. Отрадно заметить, что книга вышла в преддверии празднования 125-летия ИЭМ (ноябрь 2015 г.) при поддержке Комиссии по истории биологии и медицины ФГБНУ «ИЭМ».

В заключение хочется подчеркнуть, что в книге сочетается строгость исторического подхода и достоверность в изложении фактов и событий, связанных с судьбами героев, что отражает позицию авторов-составителей, поскольку хорошо известно, что уроки прошлого дают путь к пониманию настоящего.

"Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki": On the Prominent Naturalist Jean E. Gilibert

Plotr Kohler

The Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; [email protected]

"Quarterly Journal of the History of Science and Technology" (Polish: Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki) is issued since 1956 by the Polish Academy of Sciences (now by Institute for the History of Science PAS). The journal publishes only original materials from widely understood history of science and the history of technology. Some of its numbers are monographic. First number of 2015 was devoted to Jean Emmanuel Gilibert.

Frenchman Jean Emmanuel Gilibert (1741—1814) was undoubtedly the most prominent figure among scholars naturalists working in the second half of the XVIII century in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His activity during the nearly eight-year stay in the country, initially in Grodno (now Hrodna, Belarus), and then in Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania), although short lasting, however, had a significant impact on the Polish natural history. During that time

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J.E. Gilibert organized the Royal School of Physicians in Grodno and a (Royal) Botanical Garden in Horodnica near Grodno. Then he became professor at the chair of natural history at the Faculty of Medicine of the Vilna University, and organized a Botanical Garden and Natural History Cabinet at the University. In Grodno he taught medicine, surgery, veterinary medicine and natural history, and in Vilna — within the natural history: botany, zoology and mineralogy, and also medical matter. He published a series of works devoted to the Lithuanian plants. The most important of these publications include: Flora lituanica inchoata (Grodno — Wilno, 1781—1782), Exer-citia Phytologica (Lyon 1792), Le Calendrier de flore pour l'année 1778 autour de Grodno et pour l'année 1808, autour de Lyon (Lyon 1809).

200th anniversary of his death fell in 2014. On this occasion, an international conference was organized. Scientists from France, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine presented the results of their research on life, activities, achievements and scientific heritage of J.E. Gilibert. The results of this conference were published in the reviewed number of "Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki" (2015, vol. 60, no. 1).

First article entitled "Jean Emmanuel Gilibert and French scientists in Poland and Lithuania in 1770-1780" was written by Daniel Beauvois, an emeritus professor at the Sorbonne (Paris, France). The author recalled the great role of French culture and Frenchmen in spreading the ideas of the Enlightenment in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and an important place taken by J.E. Gilibert in this process. In the next article "European universities at the turn of the 18th and 19th century" Kalina Bartnicka (Institute for the History of Science, PAS) analyzed issues related to the severe economic, organizational, scientific and human resources crisis of most European universities in the second half of the XVIII century. The idea of a liberal university enjoying academic freedoms, freedom of research and teaching, combining research with education, overcame the crisis. The first such university was the University of Berlin, organized in 1810 by Wilhelm von Hunboldt (1767-1835). Reform of the two Polish universities (Krakow University in 1780, and Vilna University in 1781) was made by the National Education Commission almost thirty years earlier than Humboldt's one. The article "The Principal School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a university of the Enlightenment" was written by Janina Kaminska (Warsaw University). The main subject of it was a role of a great astronomer Marcin Poczobut-Odlanicki (1728-1810) in creating a modern, enlightened university in Vilna. In the paper "The contribution of J.E. Gilibert to the studies of Lithuanian flora" Aurika Rickiene (Institute of Botany, Vilnius, Lithuania) analyzed, in taxonomic terms, some publications of J.E. Gilibert. Among the approximately 1,200 species that are recorded in them from the territory of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, ca. 850 had names proposed by the French botanist. Earlier local floras willingly used Gilibert's works: in the Lietuvos TSR Flora his species were cited 444 times. Unfortunately, today as many as four floras by Gilibert (Flora Lituanica inchoata, Exercitium botanicum, Caroli Linnaei Botani-corum Principia and Exercitiaphytologica), by the decision of the International Botanical Congress, were in 2006 registered in V Annex "Opera Utique oppressa" to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. This decision means that at present these works can no longer be

used as in modern taxonomic studies, and new species described in those publications are considered as invalid. A list of the names of species cited after Gilibert in the Lietuvos TSR Flora is included in Appendix. Audrius Skridaila and Silva Zilinskaite (Botanical Garden in Vilnius, Lithuania) and Nataliya Shiyan (National Herbarium of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine) wrote the article "Jean Emmanuel Gilibert and Vilnius University Botanical Garden: results of current studies of archive material from Vilnius archives, Göttingen University and the National Herbarium of Ukraine (KW)". The authors' study suggests that in the oldest Botanical Garden in Vilna, on an area of only approximately 200 m2, at a time when it was headed by J.E. Gilibert, were cultivated about 1,000 taxa. These data were obtained from documents stored in archives in Lithuania and in Western Europe (mainly in Göttingen, Germany) and from the herbarium of J.E. Gilibert stored at the Herbarium of the Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev. The article is richly illustrated with photographs. The article "Jean Emmanuel Gilibert (1741—1814) — his life and work in the light of a correspondence and testimonies of his time" was written by Piotr Daszkiewicz (National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France). The article includes additions to the biography of Gilibert based on research carried out in recent years, among others, in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, in National and University Library in Strasbourg, and in the collections of the National Academy of Medicine in Paris. The collected pieces of information allowed a better understanding of Gilibert's scientific workshop, gathering his natural history collections, including herbarium, and his relationship with the French naturalists. In the article "J.E. Gilbert's didactic views" Wanda Gr^becka (Institute for the History of Science PAS) examined two important documents: Prospectus praelectionum cursus Historiae Naturalis. Ad usum Alumnorum Alma universi-tatis Vilnensis and Exercitium botanicum In schola principe universitatis Vilnensis habendum die mensie Julii anno 1782 seu enumeratio metodica plantarum. On this basis, the author described J.E. Gilibert's ideas in his teaching in Poland. The article "Wild mammals of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the works of Jean-Emmanuel Gilbert" was written by Tomasz Samojlik (Mammal Research Institute PAS in Bialowieza) and Piotr Daszkiewicz. The authors discuss both information about wild mammals in Lithuania (as bison, elk, lynx, wolf, beaver, badger, fox, hedgehog) and mammals known from farm or trade (eg. wolverine, steppe polecat), contained in works of J.E. Gilibert. Noteworthy is the information about breeding of albino mice by ladies in times of Gilibert (that is over 150 years earlier than the first laboratory breeding). Radoslaw Tarkowski (Pedagogical University, Krakow) in his article "Geological overview of the Vilnius Region by J. E. Gilbert (1741—1814), the first professor of natural history at the University of Vilnius" described the organizational, teaching and research activities of J. E. Gilibert in Lithuania in the field of natural history. The article " The scientific legacy of Jean Emmanuel Gilibert in Poland (copies of works, reception)" was written by Piotr Köhler (Jagiellonian University, Krakow). The author, based on queries performed in Polish libraries, identified 136 prints by J.E. Gilibert in 16 Polish libraries. Reception of Gilibert's botanical works was very positive until the end of the XIX century, until the discovery of numerous mistakes in determining of plants in the Gilibert's herbarium. The Annex to the article includes a list of libraries in Poland along with their publications of J.E. Gilibert. A short text by Piotr Daszkiewicz "Nineteenth-century memory of Stanislaw Gilibert (1780-1870)" is a supplement to these articles. Stanislaw Gilibert, a son of J.E. Gilibert, was a doctor and a social activist in Lyon (France). The text contains a translation of S. Gilibert's resume by A. Lacour.

The articles published in this issue of "Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki" contain new facts or new insights into the role of J. E. Gilibert in history of natural history. Each article has extensive footnotes and a summary in English, which may facilitate acquaint with its contents.

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"Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki" о выдающемся натуралисте Жане Э. Жилибере

Пётр Кёлер

Ягелонский университет, Краков, Польша; [email protected]

Француз Жан Эммануэль Жилибер (1741—1814) был, несомненно, самой выдающейся фигурой среди натуралистов, работавших во второй половине восемнадцатого века в польско-литовском Содружестве. Его деятельность во время почти восьмилетнего пребывания, сначала в Гродно, затем в Вильне, имела значительное влияние на польскую ботанику. Он издал ряд работ, посвя-щённых растениям Литвы. Самые важные из этих публикаций: Flora Lituanica inchoata (Grodno-Vilnius, 1781-1782), Exercitia Phytologica (Lyon 1792), Le Calendrier de flore pour l'année 1778 autour de Grodno et pour l'année 1808 autour de Lyon (Lyon 1809). Своими действиями Жан Э. Жилибер инициировал развитие современной ботаники в Польше. На 2014 г. пришлась 200-я годовщина его смерти. По этому случаю Институт истории науки Польской Академии наук организовал 25 и 26 сентября 2014 г. международную конференцию в Варшаве. В течение двух дней ученые из Франции, Литвы, Польши и Украины представили результаты своих исследований жизни, деятельности, достижений и научного наследства Жан Э. Жилибера. "Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki" [Ежеквартальник по истории науки и техники] содержит доклады, сделанные во время конференции.

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