The 17th Century Antiquarian Jakob Spon as Forerunner of Modern Sources Studies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2026.02.201Keywords:
Jacob Spon, antiquarianism, source studies, archaeography.Abstract
The purpose of the study is to highlight the origins of the formation of the fundamental science of the socio-humanitarian cycle-source studies, to form ideas about the structure of the entire scientific cycle, and to define the subject of research in the Early Modern era. One of the “fathers” of this scientific direction was Jacob Spon, a French antiquarian, medic, and collector of ancient artifacts. Disclosure of the circumstances of his life and work allows us to speak about his significant contribution to the beginning of the formation of the modern system of scientific knowledge. The methodological basis of the study is formed by traditional approaches of historicism, and objectivity of research. At the same time, the ideas about the unitary nature of the source, regardless of its form and type, the interdisciplinary nature of source studies, the history of the formation of scientific ideas about sources, the foundations of which were laid during the Renaissance and early Modern era, are of important methodological importance. Scientific novelty is determined by the practical ignorance in Ukraine of the figure of the outstanding French scientist of the Renaissance, the need to overcome both modernization and retrograde approaches to assessing his creative contribution to the development of scientific knowledge. Conclusions: the study of the life and scientific achievements of Jacob Spon shows that he became one of the first antiquarians who tried to work out the structure of knowledge about the sources of the past. He devoted his life to the study of ancient and medieval material sources in France, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. In his main work, he spoke about eight source sciences, which aimed at a comprehensive description of such remnants of the past. In the complex, they were to form the science of archaeography, that is, the description of all sources that have survived from the ancient era. This gives grounds to say that Spon became the true “father” of the current science of sources, and not only modern archaeolog y, archaeography, epigraphy, cultural studies, etc.
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