Adam Gottlob Schirach and his contribution to the history of brtnictví (beekeeping)

The breeding of bees in cavities in trees, (known as brt), has been accurately documented in the Central European area since the 10th century by the finding of brt in Poland. Mentions of brtnictvĂ­, i.e. the keeping of bees in the hollow trunks of trees, mostly hollowed out by human agency, are scattered throughout a number of specialist titles dedicated to medieval and early modern agriculture, or directly to beekeeping. These authors’ works are largely based on surviving laws relating to beekeeping /brtnictvĂ­ from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, but in these cases they represent legal sources rather than zootechnical ones. For this reason, Wald Bienenzucht (1774) by Adam Gottlob Schirach (1724-1773) occupies an exceptional position. The Lusatian-Sorbian pastor, writer and beekeeper described it on the basis of field surveys and study of the literature of this period in its final phase. The present study analyses the book Wald Bienenzucht. It is also devoted to the use of Schirach’s information in the encyclopedia known in short as Johann Georg KrĂźnitz Ökonomisch-Technologischen Encyclopädie, which since the end of the 18th century had become, thanks (among other things) to its documentation with copperplates, a frequently cited source of knowledge about brtnictvĂ­ on a global scale. The study draws attention to the pitfalls associated with the mechanical adoption of specifically these copper engravings with motifs from brtnictvĂ­ and bee pests into the literature on the development of beekeeping in Central Europe.