Importing a cosmology: An analysis of Jan Krzysztof Kluk’s “O drzewach i ziołach dzikich, lasach etc.” as a medium of the modern world

Abstract

In the article an analysis is made of the second volume of the economic manual written by J.K. Kluk entitled Roślin potrzebnych, pożytecznych, wygodnych, osobliwie krajowych albo które w kraju użyteczne być mogą, utrzymanie, rozmnożenie i zażycie devoted to forestry. The author tries to define the specifics of Kluk’s textbook as a vehicle not only for modern forestry, but also for modern cosmology. The analysis leads to a characterization of the modern world in Kluk’s work—the specifics of nature and culture, their problems, potencies, separations and projected connections—and the proposed (imported) solutions, in the context of the world they are meant to regulate. Thus, the article details what kind of world (what is its nature, what are its problems and what are its opportunities) was imported by one of the activists and thinkers of the Polish Enlightenment who transplanted particular Western solutions and institutions to Poland.