The Description of Ukraine, in its original French title Description d'Ukranie (), is a book written by the French engineer and military cartographer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan, who served the Polish king Władysław IV Vasa from the early 1630s to 1648.
The original 1651 edition of the book covered the city of Kiev, the Cossacks (in two chapters), Ukraine's nobility and its peasants, other cities and environs of the region, the peninsula of Crimea and the Crimean Tatars. Also depicted were the local customs, medicine, and fauna. The revised and expanded edition of 1660 additionally covered the climate of Ukraine and the Easter celebrations in the region. Also included was an expanded description of Poland, with an emphasis on the Polish nobility and the Polish military equipment. The revised edition was dedicated to John II Casimir Vasa. At least 26 editions of the book (in at least nine different languages) were published from 1651 to 1981.
The importance of this work lies in the discovery of Ukrainian lands, their identity and history for science and the general public in Europe. For the first time, Guillaume de Beauplan described Ukrainian life, as well as the life of the ordinary population of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Beauplan presented the Cossacks as a phenomenon of the revival of chivalry in the Ukrainian lands, in contrast to the Polish propaganda of the time.
History of writing and publishing Beauplan's background Starting a new service in the Polish Crown Army as a military engineer, Beauplan was engaged in the construction and reconstruction of fortifications, and the foundation of new cities in the south-south-eastern of Poland, and constantly studied and mapped the surrounding areas. A successful start and a number of merits in the service of the Polish king could not go unnoticed. On 8 March 1637, Beauplan became a courtier of King Władysław IV. On 10 March 1645, he received the royal privilege to publish his maps, and before that he was promoted to the rank of captain of the artillery.Дашкевич Я. Р. Територія України на картах XIII-XVIII ст.// Історичні дослідження. Вітчизняна історія. — К., 1981. — Вип. 7. — С. 90-91.
Composition of the original 1651 edition
After returning to France, owing to the general interest in the subject of the Cossack wars, Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan published, in a print run of one hundred copies, a small work entitled Description des contrées du royaume de Pologne, contenues depuis les confins de la Moscovie, jusques aux limites de la Transylvanie (Description of the Regions of the Kingdom of Poland, extending from the borders of Muscovy to the frontiers of Transylvania; Rouen 1651). Despite the small circulation, the book was a success. Especially because the book appeared shortly after the famous Battle of Berestechko (28 June – 10 July 1651), in which Polish troops defeated their Cossack and Tatar opponents.
Essar & Pernal (1990) found that the original 1651 edition had two parts: introductory materials and Ukraine. Part 2 about Ukraine discussed the following topics: Kiev, the Cossacks (in two chapters), nobles, peasants, other cities and environs, Crimea and the Crimean Tatars, customs, medicine, fauna, and a conclusion. Joan Blaeu's Dutch translation from 1664 is based on this shorter first French-language edition from 1651.
Revised edition 1660
The success of the first edition of the Description and the constant unrest in the Ukrainian lands encouraged Beauplan and his publisher Jacques Caillou to publish a new second, revised edition of the work in 1660 with an expanded text and the renamed title Description d’Ukranie, qui sont plusieurs provinces du royaume de Pologne, contenues depuis les confins de la Moscovie, jusques aux limites de la Transylvanie. Ensemble leurs moeurs, facons de viures, et de faire la Guerre (Description of Ukraine, which comprises several provinces of the Kingdom of Poland, stretching from the borders of Muscovy to the frontiers of Transylvania, along with their customs, ways of life, and methods of waging war., Rouen 1660).
The revised and expanded edition of 1660 had three parts: part 1 had slightly different introductory materials (8 pages); part 2 was about Ukraine (88.5 pages), with added chapters about climate and Easter celebrations; and a new part 3 was added about Poland (24.5 pages, about royal institutions; the Polish nobility; military equipment; banquets; and a conclusion). This edition actually contains the full text of the 1651 edition with a description of Poland itself, a dedication to king John II Casimir Vasa, and a 'Word to the Reader'. The text of the 1660 edition was repeated in the version published in Rouen in 1661. The book became the best-known and most frequently re-edited and translated 17th-century source that provided a geographical, economic, cultural, societal and demographic description of Ukraine. At least 26 editions in at least nine different languages were published from 1651 to 1981. It has seen ongoing prints ever since.
The text, published in 1651 and repeated by the Dutch cartographer and scientist Joan Blaeu in several editions of his excellent Atlas Maior, appeared in Latin (1662), French (1663 and 1667), Dutch (1664), and Spanish (1665, 1672). However, Blaeu's choice seems to be an exception to the rule, as all publishers and translators have favoured the 1660 version (the only deviation is a preprint of the French version of Blaeu's Atlas from 1663, which was published in 1967). In addition to the 17th-century editions of Cailloüé and the present translation, the 1660 text has been published in full or in fragments 48 times in French, English, German, Latin, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian.
In a 5 October 1662 letter, Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens said he had seen Isaac Vossius's copy of "Description d'Ukranie by Sir Beauplan", and asked his brother Lodewijck Huygens to send him a copy from a bookshop in Paris, and recommended Lodewijck to buy another copy for himself "for your own curiousity, because it contains remarkable things, such as on page 80 and elsewhere", referring to a description of Bobaques (a kind of marmot). In letters from 19 October and 1 December 1662, Huygens thanked his brother for sending him a copy of the Description of Ukraine.
The first known information about a copy of the Description d'Ukranie in Ukraine itself dates back to the early 19th century. The book was kept in Yahotyn in the library of Prince Mykola Repin (1778–1845), governor-general of Little Russia and amateur historian. There were few known French originals of the Description in Russia and Ukraine; in the second half of the 19th century, one or two copies in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, one copy in Kiev, Odesa, and Lviv.
Editions of Description d'Ukranie
Essar & Pernal (1982) found the following 26 editions of Beauplan's Description d'Ukranie, including the original 1651 edition and versions of it. These may be divided in two groups: the original 1651 edition, and its derivatives (all part of Joan Blaeu's Atlas Maior); and the 1660 revised and expanded edition, and its derivatives. Beauplan: Rouen 1651 (French) Blaeu: Amsterdam 1662 (Latin) Blaeu: Amsterdam 1663 (French) Blaeu: Amsterdam 1664 (Dutch) Blaeu: Amsterdam 1665 (Spanish) Blaeu: Amsterdam 1667 (French) Blaeu: Amsterdam 1672 (Spanish) Blaeu: Amsterdam 1967 (French) Beauplan: Rouen 1660 (French) Beauplan: Rouen 1661 (French) Beauplan: Rouen 1673 (French) Churchill: London 1704 (English) Churchill: London 1732 (English) Churchill: London 1744 (English) Churchill: London 1752 (English) Mizler von Kolof: Warsaw 1769 (Latin) Moeller: Wrocław 1780 (German) Niemcewicz: Warsaw 1822 (Polish) Ustrialov: St. Petersburg 1832 (Russian) Niemcewicz: Leipzig 1839 (Polish) Galitzin: Paris 1861 (French), Internet Archive Antonovich: Kiev 1896 (Russian) Liaskoronskii: Kiev 1901 (Russian) Petryshyn: New York 1959 (English) Wójcik: Warsaw 1972 (Polish) Isaievych: Lviv 1981 (Ukrainian)
Contents of the work
The book consists of the following parts. Address To the readers To the reader from the publisher A description of Ukraine and the river Boristhenus, popularly called Nipro, or Dnipro, from Kyiv to the sea into which it flows Crafts practised by the Cossacks Ruthenian nobility What are the duties of the peasants towards the lords About Crimea, or the land of Tatarstan The Crimean Tatars About the Cossacks How girls court boys How a peasant can marry a young lady How the wedding takes place Cossack medicine [About the fauna of Ukraine] [About the climate of Ukraine] [About Poland]. How a king is elected About noble liberties Customs of the Polish nobility
Beauplan. Description of Ukraine. Comments (1–199). Beauplan. Description of Ukraine. Comments (200–423).Дзюба О., Ігнатова О. Г. Левассер де Боплан. Опис України.. — Kyiv, 1990- Т.1-2 //Записки Наукового товариства ім. Т. Шевченка. — Lviv, 1991. -Т.222. — pp. 463—465.
Quotes from the work
Wedding practices
[page 65] "The wedding ceremonies are as follows: the young people from both sides are invited, and then they are ordered by the bride and groom to invite all their mutual relatives to attend the wedding [Wesellé], i.e. their wedding party. Each person who fulfils this order is given a wreath of flowers to hang on his or her arm and a list of all the invitees, to whom they go in pairs on the eve of the wedding. The first person to speak, solemnly pronouncing the invitation, holds a wand in his hand. I will not dwell on the description of the dishes and the number of varieties of meat served on the table, but I will only say that the bride is dressed according to their custom as follows: she wears a long brown cloth dress that stretches along the ground, bordered on top with half-silk, half-woolen braid and hemmed in with a whale's whisker that widens it. The [bride's] head is uncovered, her hair is scattered over her shoulders, revealing only her face, and she wears a wreath of flowers depending on the season. Wearing such a dress, her father, brother or close relative [page 66] leads her to the church, with a violin, duda or cymbals in front of her. After the wedding, one of her close relatives takes her by the hand and takes her home to the same melody. I will not describe the amusements during the wedding feast; they, though unusual, are in no way inferior to those of other nations. I will only note that they are especially encouraged to be naturally reckless by the fact that on the occasion of weddings and christenings of their children the local lord allows them to brew beer. Thanks to this privilege, they can drink it much cheaper and in larger quantities, for it should be noted that at other times the breweries belong to the lords, and all subjects must buy beer there..."
On the Cossacks Description d'Ukranie, pages 54–55, on the Cossacks.