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Lomonosov's Dedication to His Russian Grammar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

C. A. Johnson
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Extract

Almost any book on Lomonosov, and certainly any book or article about Lomonosov and the Russian language, is bound to quote this passage from the dedication to his Russian Grammar:

Charles V, the Roman Emperor, used to say that one should speak Spanish with God, French with friends, German with enemies, and Italian with the female sex. But if he had been skilled in Russian, he would, of course, have added that one could speak it with all of them, for he would have found in it the magnificence of Spanish, the vivacity of French, the strength of German, the delicacy of Italian, and in addition the richness and conciseness of Greek and Latin.... Cicero’s powerful eloquence, the splendid majesty of Virgil, Ovid’s pleasant oratory do not lose their merit in Russian.

Type
Notes and Comment
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1964 , pp. 328 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1963

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References

1 () VII (Moscow, 1952), 391-92.

2 Lomonosov used, or had access to, both Bouhours and Bayle. See () (Moscow, 1961), pp. 322, 377.

3 () (3rd revised ed.; Moscow, 1957), pp. 154-55. Efimov writes: “Here [i.e., in the dedication to the Grammar] Lomonosov speaks of Russian's grandeur with all due responsibility and validity.” () (Moscow, 1956), p. 194, says: “These lines were at that time extraordinarily topical and preserved their topicality for a long time.“

4 A. Martel, Michel Lomonosov et la langue litteraire russe (Paris, 1933), pp. 20-21

5 Sir A. Quiller-Couch, ed., The Oxford Book of English Prose (Oxford, 1925), pp. 127-28.

6 () I (Moscow, 1950), 425.\

7 L. P. Thiimmig, Institutiones philosophiae Wolfianae, in usus academicos adornatae. Tomus prior. VI. Institutiones philosophiae experimentalis, pp. 243-373 (Frankfürt and Leipzig, 1725). Thummig's work was, in turn, a translation (and abridgment) of Christian Wolff's original German.

8 () (2nd rev. ed.; Moscow, 1938), pp. 99-100, repeats Menshutkin's list.

9 () (MOSCOW, 1960), pp. 206-18.

10 Cf. the image of science as a temple that he develops in his On the Use of Chemistry, in EOA. co6. con., II (Moscow, 1951), 349-69; or, indeed, applying the concept of three styles to Russian.