300 years ago in Irkutsk

Abstract

German doctor, scientist-encyclopedist D. G. Messerschmidt is considered an outstanding Siberian scholar who collected materials in all areas of knowledge during an eight-year journey through Siberia. During his lifetime, for various reasons, he failed to publish and even fully process his field materials. The scientific legacy of Messerschmidt has recently begun to return to scientific circulation. The book under review is the first translation into Russian of a fragment of Messerschmidt's diary from December 1723 - February 1724. He spent this time in Irkutsk between travels along the Lower Tunguska and Transbaikalia. What he was doing at that time, with whom he was in contact, where he lived in the city, what issues he solved - all this can be learned from a unique source of the first quarter of the 18th century. The publication is made in the best Russian academic traditions. The book has a preface, an appendix consisting of four articles, illustrations and an index. The book was published on the eve of the 300th anniversary of Messerschmidt's stay in Irkutsk. It is of interest to historians of science in the 18th century, the history and anthropology of Irkutsk and Eastern Siberia.