The Mystery of Lomonosov’s Date of Birth

Abstract

Officially, the date of birth of M. V. Lomonosov is now considered to have been November 8 (19), 1711, although it is stipulated that this is a conditional date since the metric book where it was recorded was lost in the 18th century. This date of birth was chosen in 1911 by the Academy of Sciences for the jubilee celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the luminary of science, according to the assumption of Academician M. I. Sukhomlinov (1896). The author of the article found out that the now accepted 1711 year of birth of Lomonosov is the result of calculations by his colleague at the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Academician Ya. Shtelin (1709–1785), made after the death of Lomonosov in 1765. An analysis of all previously known and newly identified sources and all existing versions of his birth date allowed us to put forward a new version. The author of the article shows that Lomonosov, in certain circumstances, whether he was ordained a priest or appointed to the position of professor, it turned out to be advantageous to exaggerate his too undignified age. The conducted research allowed to challenge the assumption of Ya. Shtelin (1765) about the birth in 1711 of the great Russian scientist-encyclopedist, poet-innovator Lomonosov and based on the study of reliable documentary materials (the certificate of the metric book about his death, the memoirs of the professor himself in the transfer Ya. Shtelin) to assert that he was born in 1714. It probably happened days earlier or on the very day of the memory of St. Michael Malein on July 12 (23), or on the eve or on the very day of the memory of St. Archangel Michael on November 8 (19), 1714. Both versions should now be considered equivalent.

Keywords:

M. V. Lomonosov, Ya. Shtelin, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Academic University, Moscow University