History

Earl Pototskyy in the history of Ovidiopol

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Category: History

Created on Friday, 02 August 2013 16:40

As you start  wondering  what kind of people visited at different times Adzhider fortress - you become very surprised. Why is this place, once very momentous in the life of the Russian Empire, left "to die", taking with it into the abyss of time destinies and events that have been inextricably linked to her...

Another man who left an indelible mark on the world history as a scientific and creative figure, the privy councilor, an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, an author and historian, ethnographer, geographer and archaeologist, author of several comedies and novels, the famous traveler Earl Jan (Ivan Osipovich) Pototskyy, one day also visited Ovidiopol fortress. 

Having spent most of his life studying the ancient Russian history, Earl traveled a lot seeking where it was possible traces of the original Slavic tribes. Wherever would his research bring him, he studied in details ancient monuments, finding any evidence relating to the Slavs in them, the explanation of the origin which he considered his purpose in life. Earl collected and translated to French all the ancient historical records, chronicles and memoirs, which were related to any whatsoever Slavic tribe. It was Jan Pototskyy who opened a new perspective on the religion of the ancient Slavs, which were little known  by scientists of the time, and he also restored by the various historical monuments names of many ancient place.

His famous "Historical and geographical parts of the Scythians, Sarmatians and Slavs. In 1795." - nothing else than an exact selection of extracts from the rare antique bibliographic materials from primary sources, which did not include a well-known book of Herodotus, Strabo and Diodorus of Sicily. This work was the main source of knowledge about the Scythians, Sarmatians and Slavs.

That same year came another book by Ivan Osipovich:

"Memoires sur un nouveau periple du Pont Euxine et sur la plus ancienne histoire des peuples du Taurus, du Caucase et de la Scytie".

(Vienne. 1796), which contained new data on the ancient geography of the Black Sea coast. In the presented data, the author relied on the rare literary antiquities found in various libraries in Europe. A few years before this, the author visited and Ovidiopol, at the laying of the fortress, as de Lagarde told in his notes "Sophiowka. Poeme polonais par Stanislas Trembecki".

Almost all the works of the graph at present – is a bibliographic rarity, since he only allowed to print no more than a hundred copies. A huge number of his manuscripts, maps and drawings are scattered in different libraries in Europe. The famous geographer and anthropologist Julian Klaproth, wanting to perpetuate the memory of Earl Potocki, called "the archipelago of Ivan Potocki" a group of 18 islands opened by him in the Yellow Sea.

Valery Sinkovsky, based on archive materials of Sergei Argatyuk

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