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Cosmographies et nauigations

COSMOGRAPHIES IN ROMANIAN¹ : “LAUS ASIAE” OR

“LAUS EUROPAE” ?

CAtALINA YELCULESCU and V. GURUIANU

For a long period of time, in our part of the world the natural form of spreading and perpetuation of culture was the orał form. That is why, alt-

houg small-size written evidence exists, larger pieces of writing appear only

in the 17th cen tury. For the Romanian scholars of that epoch (who were

acąuainted with one or morę widely used European languages) it had become

elear that the errors existing in foreign cosmographies or histories could have

had a bad influence in other fields than the cultural one.² A morę clearly

expressed attitude confronted with such errors appears in the High Steward

Constantin Cantacuzino’s Istoriia (History). He pointed out two categories

of errors: some due to the natural boundaries of knowledge which this man

of science treats with fuli understanding; and others, sprung from spite and

directed towards diminishing, blaming or abusing, all resulting in a delibe-

rate distorsion of the truth. In his opinion, the authors of mistification, of

the above-mentioned category should be answered in only two ways: either

by sheer force or by creative intelligence. ³ This latter way was chosen by

our scholars, to the extent of the knowledge acąuired in their time.

¹ For a certain chapter of a Romanian cosmography, see our paper entitled Aułours de Pays des Amazones, R.E.S.E.E., 1994, no. 1—2, pp. 83—87.

We also wish to mention one of the oldest geographical texts in Romanian from Tran-sylvania and dealing with Transylvania, unfortunately preserved onlyin the editions printed by Timotei Cipariu. See M. Gaster, Chrestomatie Romdnd, Leipzig, Bucharest, vol. 1, 1891, pp. 175-178.

It is in fact a description of Transylvania which is in no way similar to those con-tained in the cosmographies we studied and has a rather local character.

^a P. P. Panaitescu, Influenta polond fn opera si personalitatea cronicarilor Gr. Ureche si Miron Costin, Bucharest, 1925, also Influenca polond fi rusd in vechea culturd romdneasca_t lithographed lectures for universitary use, 1935—1936, p. 185; also Introducere to Grigore Ureche, Letopiseful Tdrii Moldovei_t Bucharest, 1955, pp. 32—46; C. C. Giurfscu, Introducere to Grigore Ureche, Letopiseful, Craiova, 1934, pp. LXV—LXVI; łon C. Chi^imia, Probleme de bazd ale literaturii romdne vechi, Bucharest, 1972, pp. 159—196 and 201—244; C. Vel-culescu, Les lettrćs roumains et les cosmographies occidentales, in "Synthesis^,ł, XVII, 1990, pp. 61-66.

³ Constantin Cantacuzino, Istoriia Tdrii Rum&nesti, in Cronicari munteni, edited by Mihail Gregorian, Introductory notę by Eugen Stónescu, Bucharest, 1961, vol. 1, pp. 8—

9 and 23-24.

Rev. Ćtud&s Sud-Est Europ., XXXIII, 1-2, p. 153-170, Bucarest, 1995