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154 C&t&lina Yelculescu, V. Guruifli.u 2

In Sebastian Munster’s cosmography¹, for instance, the news on the Romanian provinces are scarce and sometimes not correct. Writings such as De neamul moldovenilor (On Moldavian Ancestors) by Miron Costin, Isłonia (History) by the High Steward Constantin CantacuzinQ on the beginning of the Romanian people, or Descńerea Moldovti (Description of Moldavia) writ-ten in Latin by the Voievode Dimitrie Cantemir were meant to make up for, or to amend, the image of the Romanian provinces so inadeąuately described by Western sources. The above-mentioned writings could find their places in any European cosmographies and, in this way we can obtain similarly deve-loped sections on the Romanian provinces with those dedicated to Western countries.

The oldest text containing a cosmography in Romanian identified till the present day was copied by Costea Dascalul of §cheii Brasovului, some-time between 1693—1703 and was included in a short anthology of popular books (Rom. ms. BAR 1436)².

The text of §chei belongs to the legendary and fabulous geography and comes closer to what we cali nowadays "literaturę" than to what is generally known as "geographical science" ³.

The critical spirit, characteristic for the Renaissance humanism, is typical for the second kind of geographical writing translated into Romanian and utterly different from the one reflected in Costea Dascalul’s copy. We are referring to the First Part of Giovanni Botero's writing Le Relationi universali (l^8t edition, Romę, 1591) which was translated into Romanian possibly in Moldavia by the beginning of the 18th century, after an interme-diary edition in Polish.⁴ Botero has tried to eliminate the "fairy tale” from

1

   The evolution of the meanings »f the word cosmograjie is worth a sjsecial study. Sebastian Munster defines by this term a description of the Earth seen as againat "the cjr-cles of the- sky”, accompanied for each country (or district) by historical data too, (either fully developed or brief) and by illustrating pictures. For the texts translated into Romanian in the 17th and 18th centuries, the word cosmografie is best defined by "legendary and my-thological geography**.

2

   Gabriel $trempel, Catalogul matiuscriselor rom&nefti, vol. 1, Bucharest, 1978, pp. 329; M. Popescu-Spineni, Un manuscris romdnesc de geografie din secolul al XVII-lea, in "Studii ?i cercetiri de bibliologie**, V, 1963, pp. 319 — 333;rV. Guruianu, Datarca celni mai vcchi manuscris cunoscuł al "Fiziologului”, in L. R., XL, no. 1—2, 1991, pp. 49 — 55; C. Velcu-lescu in **Synthesis’* 1990 (see notę 2).; idem, Animalc fantasticc pi fara preotului Ioan, **Ma-nuscriptum**, XXII, 1991, no, 2—4 pp. 26 — 33; C. Velculescu and V* Guruianu, Cosmografie, "Manuscriptum**; XXIII, 1992, no. 1-4, pp. 224-243.

3

⁹ Leonardo Olschki, Storia lełteraria delle scoperte geografiche, Florence, 1937; Karl Ulrich Sindram, Aesłhełics of Alteriły: Literaturę ani the Imagological Approach, in ¹*Yearbook of European Studies**, 4, 1991, pp. 177—191; Frank Lestringant, Le declin d'un savoir. La crise de la cosmographie a la fin de la Renaissance, in "Annales. Economies, Socićtćs Civi-lisations**. XLVI, 1991, no. 2, pp. 239-260.

4

Romanian manuscript existing in BAR no. 3515, 1556, 1267, 3391, 1263; Gabriel $trempel, op. cit., vol. I —III, Bucharest, 1978—1987.

The connection between ms. 3391 and Botero*s geography was pointed out by us for the first time in "Manuscriptum**, 1991 and 1992. In the same review we also indicated the Connection with ms. 3515. Ms. 1263 is discussed for the first time.

For the fragments referring to Komanians, see "Arhiva Societ^ii ętiin^ifice si Lite-rare din Ia§i**, V, 1894, no. 12, pp. 666 — 669; G. Nicolaiasa in **Revista arhivelor**, I, 1924 — 1926, no. 1 — 3, pp. 373 — 377; N. A . Ursu, Formirea terminologiei geografice in Omagiu lui Iorgu Iordan, Bucharest, 1958, pp. 871 — 876; also Formarea terminologiei ftiinfifice rom&neęti, Bucharest, 1962; also Versiunea romdneascd necunoscutd a geografiei unive}’sale a lui Giovanni Botero, in "Cronica**, XIV, 1979, no. 38 (12), p. 7, also Nicolae Costin, traducdtor al geografiei