„Zwierzęta, które Chińczycy oprócz naszych mają”
Animals, which the Chinese have apart from ours

Michał Boym and the import of Chinese zoological knowledge to Modern Europe

Author(s): Albert Kozik
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Michał Boym; Flora Sinensis; knowledge transfer; Chinese mission; modern zoology
Summary/Abstract: Michał Boym’s Flora Sinensis is the most important 16th century treatise devoted to flora and fauna of China and compiled in the West. The import of zoological knowledge to Europe was then an extremely complex process, in which animal world research prevalent in modern times and frequent problems connected with translating and preparing scientific illustrations played a significant role. The aim of the first part of this study is to analyse the way in which Boym used the information taken from treatises of Chinese scholars to show the fauna of the Middle Kingdom to European readers, and to indicate what methods of the zoological description he took from Chinese authors. In the second part, on the basis of numerous historical sources, the author shows the late 17th century and the 18th century reception of the "Flora Sinensis" to demonstrate that in the middle of the 17th century Boym could have easily transferred the knowledge from China to Europe thanks to the similarity of paradigms in describing the world of nature. The subsequent decades brought a gradual change in thinking about zoology, which made his treatise obsolete very quickly.

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