Historiography of the Study of Museology as a Science

Abstract

The article attempts to highlight the main achievements of historiographic research on the problems of the development of museology as a science. The directions of museological research are highlighted and the main debatable issues are analyzed.

It is indicated that the term ‘museology’ has a very ancient history. The first publication on the theory of museum work was published in Munich in 1565 by the Belgian doctor Kwikkeberg. Further publications on this topic appeared in the 17^th century, and in 1727 K.F. Nykelius published his work, in the title of which the term ‘museology’ was mentioned for the first time. In 1877, the director of the museum ‘Green Vault’ Y.G. Gresse started the periodical ‘Zeitschrift für Museologie und Antiquitätenkunde’ in Dresden, where in 1883 he published the work ‘Museology as a Special Discipline’, thus starting the before-museological stage.

The author shows that a number of scientists use the terms ‘Museum studies’ and ‘museology’ as identical in meaning, because within the framework of theoretical museology a systematic approach is implemented and the entire complex of issues related to the preservation and actualization of all forms of cultural and natural, movable and immovable, tangible and intangible heritage.

At the moment, there is no consensus among researchers – museologists regarding the structure and functions of this science, the transformation of the museum into a multifunctional cultural center.

The article states that museology usually considered the museum object at the center of its research activities. In recent years, museology has changed its judgment about museum objects. At first, the museum value of the object was determined by rarity, aesthetic value, memoriality, informativeness, and the museum grew for the object. Now, a considerable number of museologists believe that the basis of a museum should not be the objects that belong to it, but the ideas that it seeks to convey to the visitor. That is why museology has recently been increasingly promoting the issue of the content of the museum as an institution, its prospects, influence on society and the formation of social consciousness.

The directions of museological research are also highlighted and the main debatable issues are analyzed. The meaning of the terms ‘museology’, ‘museum’ is considered and the literature is described, which assigns the place of museology in the system of social and humanitarian sciences.