TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISCOURSES IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5840/eps202461454Keywords:
technology, science, Age of Enlightenment, Russia, France, Encyclopedia of Diderot and D’Alembert, N.M. Yanovsky, Academy of SciencesAbstract
The development of science and technology in the Age of Enlightenment came to the idea of a language for describing technical and technological achievements that could facilitate mutual understanding between scientists, artisans, inventors, as well as production organizers and government agencies. This task seemed easily achievable, and the French Academy of Sciences undertook a special edition of the encyclopedic type “Description of Sciences and Crafts” to create such a language. However, the edition was not completed and was partly continued in the “Encyclopedia” of Diderot and D’Alembert, which for the first time in the practice of encyclopedic publications began not only to study crafts and technical achievements but also to visualize them in special engravings. In Russia, the analysis of technical and technological discourse occurred later, in the late 18th – early 19th centuries. Russian authors had the opportunity to take into account the experience of encyclopedic publications in France and Britain and to see that the project of creating a universal language uniting artisans, scientists, and those in power could not be fully realized. However, the problem of mutual understanding between different social groups involved in the process of production and exploitation of new technologies remained unresolved, so work in this direction was being carried out, although sometimes it remained beyond the interest of intellectual historians and historians of science. The article compares European and Russian sources of the 18th century devoted to this issue, as well as a number of Russian sources of the early 19th century related to the analysis and understanding of scientific and technological achievements, new vocabulary, and new relationships generated by technical and technological development. It is concluded that the introduction of these sources into scientific circulation will be promising for the study of technical discourses and trends in their development.
References
Артемьева Т.В. Формирование российских интеллектуальных элит в эпоху Просвещения // Одиссей. Человек в истории. 2022. Вып. 28. С. 117–139.
Библиотека ученая, економическая, нравоучительная, историческая и увеселительная в пользу и удовольствие всякаго звания читателей. Тобольск, 1793–1794. 271 с.
Севергин В.М. Предисловие // Технологический журнал, или Собрание сочинений и известий, относящихся до технологии и приложения учиненных в науках открытий к практическому употреблению, издаваемое Академией наук. СПб., 1804. С. 3–8.
Словарь Академии Российской. Части 1–6. СПб.: Императорская Академия Наук, 1789–1794.
Собрание лучших сочинений к распространению знания и к произведению удовольствия, или Смешанная библиотека о разных физических, экономических, також до мануфактур и до коммерции принадлежащих вещах. В 4 ч. М.: И.Г. Рейхель, 1762.
Технологический журнал, или Собрание сочинений и известий, относящихся до технологии, и приложения учиненных в науках открытий к практическому употреблению, издаваемое императорской Академией наук. СПб., 1812–1814.
Умозрительные изследования Императорской Санктпетербургской Академии Наук. Т. I–V. СПб.: При Императорской академии наук, 1808, 1810, 1812, 1815, 1819.
Яновский Н.М. Новый словотолкователь, расположенный по алфавиту: содержащий: разныя в российском языке встречающияся иностранныя речения и технические термины, значение которых не всякому известно, каковы суть между прочими: астрономические, математические, медицинские, анатомические, химические, юридические, коммерческие, горные, музыкальные, военные, артиллерийские, фортификационные, морские и многие другие, означающие придворные, гражданские и военные чины, достоинства, должности, и проч. как древних, так и нынешних времен. Напечатанный по высочайшему его императорскаго величества повелению. В 3 ч. СПб.: При Императорской Академии наук, 1803–1806.
Artemyeva, T.V. “Formirovanie rossiiskikh intellektual’nykh elit v epokhu Prosveshcheniya” [Formation of Russian intellectual elites in the Age of Enlightenment], in: Odissei. Chelovek v istorii [Odysseus: A Man in History], 2022, issue 28, pp. 117–139. (In Russian)
Biblioteka uchenaya, ekonomicheskaya, nravouchitel’naya, istoricheskaya i uveselitel’naya v pol’zu i udovol’stvie vsyakago zvaniya chitatelei [A library of scholarly, economic, moral, historical and entertaining contents for the benefit and pleasure of every class of readers]. Tobol’sk, 1793–1794. 271 pp. (In Russian)
Severgin, V.M. “Predislovie” [Preface], in: Tekhnologicheskii zhurnal, ili Sobranie sochinenii i izvestii, otnosyashchikhsya do tekhnologii i prilozheniya uchinennykh v naukakh otkrytii k prakticheskomu upotrebleniyu, izdavaemoe Akademiei nauk [Technological Journal, or Collected Works and News Related to Technology and the Application of Discoveries Made in the Sciences to Practical Use, Published by the Academy of Sciences]. St. Petersburg, 1804, pp. 3–8. (In Russian)
Slovar’ Akademii Rossiiskoi. Chasti 1–6 [Dictionary of the Russian Academy. Parts 1–6]. St. Petersburg: Imperatorskaya Akademiya Nauk Publ., 1789–1794. (In Russian)
Sobranie luchshikh sochinenii k rasprostraneniyu znaniya i k proizvedeniyu udovol’stviya, ili Smeshannaya biblioteka o raznykh fizicheskikh, ekonomicheskikh, takozh do manufaktur i do kommertsii prinadlezhashchikh veshchakh. V 4 ch. [A Collection of the Best Works for the Dissemination of Knowledge and the Production of Pleasure, or a Mixed Library on Various Physical, Economic, as Well as Manufacturing and Commercial Things. In 4 parts]. Moscow: I.G. Reikhel’ Publ., 1762. (In Russian)
Tekhnologicheskii zhurnal, ili Sobranie sochinenii i izvestii, otnosyashchikhsya do tekhnologii i prilozheniya uchinennykh v naukakh otkrytii k prakticheskomu upotrebleniyu, izdavaemoe imperatorskoi Akademiei nauk [Technological Journal, or Collected Works and News Related to Technology and the Application of Discoveries Made in the Sciences to Practical Use, Published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences]. St. Petersburg, 1812–1814. (In Russian)
Umozritel’nye izsledovaniya Imperatorskoi Sanktpeterburgskoi Akademii Nauk. T. I–V [Speculative Researches of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Vol. I–V]. St. Petersburg: Imperatorskaya Akademiya Nauk Publ., 1808, 1810, 1812, 1815, 1819. (In Russian)
Yanovskii, N.M. Novyi slovotolkovatel’, raspolozhennyi po alfavitu: soderzhashchii: raznyya v rossiiskom yazyke vstrechayushchiyasya inostrannyya recheniya I tekhnicheskie terminy, znachenie kotorykh ne vsyakomu izvestno, kakovy sut’ mezhdu prochimi: astronomicheskie, matematicheskie, meditsinskie, anatomicheskie, khimicheskie, yuridicheskie, kommercheskie, gornye, muzykal’nye, voennye, artilleriiskie, fortifikatsionnye, morskie i mnogie drugie, oznachayushchie pridvornye, grazhdanskie ivoennye chiny, dostoinstva, dolzhnosti, i proch. kak drevnikh, tak i nyneshnikh vremen. Napechatannyi po vysochaishemu ego imperatorskago velichestva poveleniyu. V 3 ch. [A New Word-Interpreter, Arranged Alphabetically: Containing: Various Foreign Expressions and Technical Terms Found in the Russian Language, the Meaning of Which is not Known to Everyone, such as, among Others: Astronomical, Mathematical, Medical, Anatomical, Chemical, Legal, Commercial, Mining, Musical, Military, Artillery, Fortification, Naval and Many Others, Denoting Court, Civil and Military Ranks, Dignity, Positions, etc. of Both Ancient and Modern Times. Printed by His Imperial Majesty’s Highest Command. In 3 parts]. St. Petersburg: Imperatorskaya Akademiya Nauk Publ., 1803–1806. (In Russian)
Cole, A.H., Watts, G.B. The handicrafts of France as recorded in the Descriptions des artes et métiers 1761–1788. Boston: Baker Library, Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, 1952. 43 pp.
D’Alembert, J., Diderot, D. L’Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1re éd, tome 1. Paris: Briasson, MDCCLI. 914 p. Édition Numérique Collaborative et Critique de l’Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers de Diderot, D’Alembert et Jaucourt (1751– 1772). [http://enccre.academie-sciences.fr/encyclopedie/article/v1-3082-0/, accessed on 10.08.2024].
Daumas, M., Tresse, R. “La Description des Arts et Métiers de l’Académie des Sciences et le sort de ses planches gravées en taille douce”, Revue d’histoire des sciences et de leurs applications, 1954, tome 7, no. 2, pp. 163–171.
Descriptions des arts et métiers, faites ou approuvées, par messieurs de l’Académie royale des sciences de Paris. Tome 1. Nouv. éd. publ. avec des observations, et augmentée… Par J.E. Bertrand. Neuchatel: Impr. de la Soc. typ., 1761. 722 pp.
Encyclopaedia Britannica or a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature: constructed on a plan by which the different sciences and arts are digested into the form of distinct treatises or systems the history, theory, and practice of each… in eighteen volumes. 3rd ed., greatly improved. Edinburgh: Printed for A. Bell and C. Macfarquhar, 1788–1797.
