Рукописна та книжкова спадщина України (Jan 2022)
“Readable space” of Cossack foreman of second half of 18th century: personal library of Stepan Lashkevych
Abstract
The goal of the research. By studying the catalog of Stepan Lashkevych’s personal library (identification of books, establishment of a number of defining quantitative and qualitative thresholds, detection of the presence of the “nomenclature” of books) to characterize the reading range of the Cossack officer of the second halfof the 18th century. Methodology. The study was based on the methodological approaches proposed by historians of reading: Lucien Febvre, Robert Darnton, Roger Chartier, Henri-Jean Martin. Scientific novelty. The study allowed to establish the signs of the “reading revolution” among the Cossack officers of the Hetmanate in this period. The author revealed the shifts in reading practices, as well as recorded the peculiarities of “reading activity” and individual creative consumption of cultural products “educated by the elite”. Focusing on one library has become an option for case studies, which has allowed us to see a broader cultural context through the prism of the individual. Conclusions. The array of books by Stepan Lashkevych Library, their types of diversity, wide thematic palette, availability of scientific, educational, children’s literature, indicates significant changes in reading practices and testifies to the so-called “reading revolution”. The content of this library, as well asits comparison with some others, suggests that in the second half of the 18th century among the Cossack officers who were part of the “educated elite”, reading of “intensive” type is replaced by reading of “extensive” one. Fixing a set of “iconic” books provides an opportunity to define certain social boundaries and identify channels for the spread of new trends, to characterize book culture as a space of cultural transfer. Finally, it allows us to think about the involvement of this region in European processes, about the specifics of finding answers to the challenges of the Enlightenment. The composition of the personal libraries of the “educated elite” of the Hetmanate testifies in favor of the thesis of existence of the “Ukrainian Enlightenment” as acertain cultural phenomenon, with its own national and regional specifics.
