Paper Short Abstract:

The paper explores certain previously overlooked aspects of Ignacy Czerwiński’s Okolica zadniestrska (1811) related to the writing and unwriting of agricultural knowledge in Boyko Land, the practices involved in its transfer and preservation, and the proposed improvements to traditional agriculture.

Paper Abstract:

The book entitled Okolica zadniestrska by Ignacy Lubicz Czerwiński (1749–1834) was published in 1811 in Lviv. Later researchers have dubbed it the first ethnographic monograph in the Polish language. Ignacy Czerwiński, a trained lawyer, nobleman, and owner of a number of villages located in Boyko Land, a region in today’s Ukraine, perceived the peasantry of the day (still referred to as “glebae adscrpti”) as a distinct community with its own history, culture, and aspirations, as well as a wealth of knowledge on the specific character of the local land (soil) and its cultivation, the local climate, plant species, animal husbandry, etc. The unique value of his work stems, among other aspects, from its detailed description of the allocation of responsibilities, particular peasant skills, specificity of tools and methods used in agriculture, as well as the ways in which such knowledge was passed on to subsequent generations and preserved. In my study, I underscore the still largely untapped potential of his writings as a vivid description of living culture and practices (illiterate, haptic, oral and emulative) related to agriculture, history of ethnology and environmental studies. I help the reader to understand the ways in which Czerwiński explored peasant tradition and agricultural practices, as well as the various innovations that he – as a landowner himself – proposed in terms of land management, agricultural methods and techniques. The latter contributions were offered based on his firsthand experience, observation, as well as study of other authors’ texts on the subject.