Medical and Astrological Treatise “Zhyl Strekanie” in the Context of the Ukrainian

Abstract

The aim of the publication is to publish a hitherto unpublished medieval source on the history of Ukrainian medical thought and to contextualize it in the intellectual environment of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at that time.

Methodology. Historiographical and source analysis were used to highlight the current state of research. The source has been transcribed using the critical method.

Scientific novelty. For the first time, the treatise “Zhyl Strekanie” (“Bloodletting”) was published. Its author belonged to the Vilnius circle of Ruthenian intellectuals, overlooked until now as an integral part of the Ukrainian Renaissance.

Conclusions. After reviewing rather scanty scholarly remarks on the work “Zhyl strekanie”, preference is given to the thesis that it appeared in the last quarter of the 15th century, in the context of contacts between the Ruthenian elite of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the intellectuals of the Novgorod Republic, who were later characterized as “Judaizers” and condemned as heretics. The role of the Union of Florence in the spread of Renaissance trends in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania has been emphasized. The Union was equally important for the contacts of Ruthenians in the Polish-Lithuanian state with the Western Church, contributing to the spread of Renaissance ideas among the Ruthenian elite. One of the specific ways of spreading pan-European trends was the travels of unionist Ruthenians to European countries, in particular, pilgrimages to Rome. At the same time, attention is drawn to the absence of Vilna as one of the important centers of intellectual life of the Ruthenians of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the field of researchers of the Ukrainian Renaissance. The author outlines the figures who belonged to the Vilnius circle of humanists and should be considered as representatives of the Ukrainian Renaissance.