Jean Boden in Russian Historiography

Abstract

Jean Boden (1530—1596), the famous French lawyer and politician, historian, economist and philosopher left a rich artistic legacy — ten treatises on a variety of topics: from education to the theory of sovereignty. Abroad, hundreds of works are devoted to the study of the life and work of Boden, and the first of them appeared already at the beginning of the 17th century. The question naturally arises, what was the fate of Boden's ideas in Russia? At first glance, it seems that there can be no question of direct impact. In those few decades, when the name of Boden was still thundering, his works were repeatedly published and translated into foreign languages, the political atmosphere in Russia was not conducive to the perception of the ideas of the French thinker. This was the period of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Oprichnin, then, followed by Troubles and the accession of the first Romanovs to the Russian throne. When the Russian educated society began to actively assimilate the spiritual riches of the West, Boden's time had already passed and Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and others became the subject of study of the Russian Enlightenment. But nevertheless, traces of acquaintance with Boden and even his influence can be found in our country at the end of the 17th and especially in the 18th century. The article further examines the Russian tradition of studying Boden's ideas to this day.