Погляд на проблему трансформації назви містечка Межибіж у світлі нових архівних джерел

Abstract

It is noted in the article that the first written information about Podillya towns in Polish sources dates back to the end of the 14th - first half of the 15th century, and in the ancient Old Rus` chronicles there are mentions only of some towns, among which there is Mezhybizh town, located between rivers Pivdennyi Buh and Buzhok. It is stated that the location determined its name. However, it is established that the name Medzhybizh, which has survived to the present day, is fixed in the documents of the late Middle Ages. On the basis of the discovered materials, which are iconographic materials and archival documents of the Sieniawski family, an attempt was made to trace the transformation of the name of the town from the 12th to the 18th century. It is claimed that this name could have been established thanks to beekeeping. It is known that the production and sale of honey and wax played an important role in the economic and financial life of many cities, including Medzhybizh. During the analysis of archival sources, it was established that the document on construction and repair works in the Medzhybizh key for 1727 it is stated that in Nova Syniava a new winter house for beehives was built, which did not exist before, and peasants no longer spent much time and they didn`t drove apiaries to Medzhybozh in the autumn and back to Nova Syniava in the spring. The same clay stebniks were built in Khodkivtsi and Kopystyn, 30 km from Medzhybizh. However, for 10 years in the description of Novosinyavsky court in 1738, the stebnyk on two pillars is marked as old. Only in the document for 1759–1760 was the treasure stebnyk of Medzhybizh first mentioned, in which magnate apiaries were probably kept in winter. We assume that it could be located under the magnate's chambers and rooms in the south-eastern part of the castle of Medzhibizh or near the castle at the court of the Czartoryski, which was surrounded by a moat and an oak fence. Although such an assumption requires thorough research. Also on the map of the geometer Anthony Endrzejowski in 1772 in the explication we find mentions of three large apiaries, which were located near Medzhybizh, on the outskirts of the village Markivtsi. Key words: Medzhybizh, Sieniawski, Czartoryski, stebnyk (a building designed for wintering bees), honey.