"MAN AND DISEASE" TOPIC IN "THE GREAT MIRROR" COLLECTION
The thematic, plot and motivic component of the Western European collection “The Great Mirror”, translated from Polish into Russian at the end of the 17th century, still awaits its proper study. The theme of “man and disease” is the main or cross-cutting for the collection. As reveals analysis of its contents that personal sin according to the Christian etiology is the main cause of the disease. Hence a diseased man and his unhealthy state are perceived by others ambiguously. The former at the same time no longer belongs to the circle of healthy people and needs care and tolerance. The term “doctor” in the Russian “The Great Mirror” is collective and means a person who provides gratuitous assistance to those in need. The collection also includes stories about professional medical treatment. The topic “man and disease” appears in “The Great Mirror” as an integral part of the daily life of medieval society in social, conceptual and cultural dimensions. Therefore, at the end of the 17th century, and thus in the period of establishing of the national medical culture, the transformation, regulation and development of medical knowledge, the formation of the state system of medicine, this issue became particularly relevant. The medical topic with descriptions of the condition of a diseased man, ways of treatment, a list of diseases and traumas, the methods of treatment and diagnostics were the main attractions for the translators. The medical orientation of the Russian “Great Mirror”, “decorated” with anatomical motifs, caught the attention of readers both by its cognitive-entertaining and cultural-historical aspects, with rich manuscript tradition of the collection and a huge number of its lists providing a sound evidence of it.