TY - JOUR

T1 - Круговорот наук в Европе, или ‘Греческий проект’ Петра Великого

AU - Pozdnev, Michael M.

N1 - Позднев, М. М. (2021). Круговорот наук в Европе, или ‘Греческий проект’ Петра Великого. Philologia Classica, 16(2), 290-307. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2021.210

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - In his famous speech of 1714, Peter I depicts Europe as a single organism with Greece as its heart: it is from here that “the sciences,” like blood, once flowed and along the homeward path they run, having first gained a firm foothold in Russia. The18th century perceived this comparison as a real political program: the similarity was supposed to imply that the European culture should be brought back to Greece on Russian bayonets. This rendering was born with the utopian “Greek project” of Catherine II and lasted until the end of the century. Neither confirming nor contradicting it, the 19th century prefers to see in Peter’s words pride in the successes of the Russian enlightenment which was introduced during the two decades of his reformist activity. The 20th century, burdened with the baggage of literary associations, interprets this image as commonplace for baroque rhetoric, a routine metaphor for translatio studii with little or no actual political meaning. Undoubtedly authentic, transmitted by several early witnesses, the speech became part of the ‘Petrine myth,’ but, surprisingly enough, was never the subject of critical source analysis. Thus, its historical context and intended meaning remained largely obscured. A comparative study leads to the conclusion that all its renderings originated from a common literary source. The archetypal version was that of F. Chr. Weber, while the other variants are more or less remote copies containing deliberate amendments. A closer look at the relevant paragraphs of Weber’s notes reveals the true pathos of the speech. Peter’s rhetoric, prompted by his immediate concerns, boils down to an admiration for the culture of Western Europeans. The historical context clarifies what motivates the central image of the simile — Greece as the heart of European enlightenment: shortly before the episode, the tsar was treated to a Greek speech delivered by the six-year-old son of the learned Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir who was one of Peter’s principal allies.

AB - In his famous speech of 1714, Peter I depicts Europe as a single organism with Greece as its heart: it is from here that “the sciences,” like blood, once flowed and along the homeward path they run, having first gained a firm foothold in Russia. The18th century perceived this comparison as a real political program: the similarity was supposed to imply that the European culture should be brought back to Greece on Russian bayonets. This rendering was born with the utopian “Greek project” of Catherine II and lasted until the end of the century. Neither confirming nor contradicting it, the 19th century prefers to see in Peter’s words pride in the successes of the Russian enlightenment which was introduced during the two decades of his reformist activity. The 20th century, burdened with the baggage of literary associations, interprets this image as commonplace for baroque rhetoric, a routine metaphor for translatio studii with little or no actual political meaning. Undoubtedly authentic, transmitted by several early witnesses, the speech became part of the ‘Petrine myth,’ but, surprisingly enough, was never the subject of critical source analysis. Thus, its historical context and intended meaning remained largely obscured. A comparative study leads to the conclusion that all its renderings originated from a common literary source. The archetypal version was that of F. Chr. Weber, while the other variants are more or less remote copies containing deliberate amendments. A closer look at the relevant paragraphs of Weber’s notes reveals the true pathos of the speech. Peter’s rhetoric, prompted by his immediate concerns, boils down to an admiration for the culture of Western Europeans. The historical context clarifies what motivates the central image of the simile — Greece as the heart of European enlightenment: shortly before the episode, the tsar was treated to a Greek speech delivered by the six-year-old son of the learned Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir who was one of Peter’s principal allies.

KW - Dimitrie Cantemir

KW - Peter I

KW - The Greek project

KW - Translatio studii

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127913258&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.21638/SPBU20.2021.210

DO - 10.21638/SPBU20.2021.210

M3 - статья

AN - SCOPUS:85127913258

VL - 16

SP - 290

EP - 307

JO - Philologia Classica

JF - Philologia Classica

SN - 0202-2532

IS - 2

ER -