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3    Cosmographies in Romanian 155

-previous sources (without much of a result) and to build up (still preserving historical and ethnographical information) as much as possible a strictly scientific geography ⁸. Yet, in contrast with the Italian author, the Romanian copysts use the word "cosmography” in the title exactly like the manu-script of §cheń

The text copied by Costea Dascalul around 1700 consists of two frag-ments: Poveastea farilor fi a inpdrafiilor c&te-s in pam&ntul Asiei (The Story of Countries and Empires in Asia; f. 49—68) and Impdrfeala dint&i. Cozmo-grafie ce sa zice impdrfeala pdmdntului pre kotara fi pre alte seamne ce sint in cercurile ceriului (The Original Division. The Cosmography or the Division of the Earth into Lines and Other Signs Existing in the Sky Circles; f. 68 — 75). This juxtaposition comes right from the source used by the Romanian translator and reminds us of those 18th century Russian cosmographies about the countries in the Near East obtained by putting together two diffe-rent variants.⁹

In the manuscript of §chei, Poveastea farilor ... Asiei (f. 49—68) is actually a part of a cosmography madę of several considerably old narratives to which news on morę recent events (of 1624—1626) were added (f. 52). In the second part entitled Impdrfeala dint&i. Cozmografie ... (f. 68—75) the description of some places included in the first part (Galiley, Phenicia, An-tioch, Mesopotamia) is resumed, following a concise source, undoubtedly written before the discovery of the New World.

The manuscript containing the old text copied by Costea Dascalul in Brasov had reached Bucharest towards the end of the 18th century. Indeed, in January, lOth, 1796, Nicolauą Radu Catana the then owner of the manuscript, was still in Brasov, but in November, 18th, the same year he was in Bucharest and got the manuscript with him.¹⁰ By the middle of the 19th century this manuscript containing old texts existed in the library of Constantin Oltel-niceanu ¹¹ who underlined some fragmentsf of the texts which become ob-vious if we take into consideration the interest shown by this well-known antiąuary for Asian civilisation.

■unioersale a lni Giooanni Botero, in "Revista de istorie ęi teorie liteiari”, XXXIX, 1991, no. 3—4, pp. 365 — 379; C. Velculescu, Kosmographien und Historiographie in “Cahiers rou-■mains d'histoire littćraire”, 1985, no. 2, pp. 40—51; also in "Manuscriptum”, 1991, no.2— 4; C. Velculescu, V. Guruianu, in “Manuscriptum”, 1992, no. 1—4.

⁸    Giovanni Botero does not offer the mathematical geographical coordinates as did the works continuing Ptolemy^s tradition. His books are closer to a descriptive types of geography like Strabon’s, also containing information in various domains, organized into sepa-rate topics yet.

By this critical spirit, also existing in Strabon, BoterO is different from the text copied at Schei (ms. 1436) which is framed in another tradition illustrated by Pomponius Mela and Solinus, descending from Ctesias and Megasthene.

⁹    KocMozpapiM (...) (1670 r. in “OSmecTBO JnofinTejieft ApeBHeft nHCMeHocni’’, no. 21, 57, 68, Petersburg, 1878—1881 (this work is known to us only through O. A. Belobrova, PoCMoepapuA in Cstoaapb khuokhukob u khumchocitiu Jfpeeneu Pycu. BmopaA nojweuna XIV-XVI 6.). (I, pp. 493-494, Leningrad, 1988).

¹⁰    See- the notes by Nicolae Radu C&tan& existing in Rom. ms. BAR 595, f. 2 (Car-łea Impirafilor) and in ms. 1436, f. 223.

^u loan Łupu, Un bibliofil rom&n din prima jumdłate a oeacului al XIX-lea: cdpitanul Constantin Oltelniceanu and Datę noi prmitoare la bibliofilul Constantin Oltelniceanu, in "Studii fi cercet&ri de bibliologie", III, 1960, pp. 129—152 and V, 1963, pp. 79—105; G. Strempel, op. cii., in Notę 5.