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100 C&t&lina Yelculescu, V. Guruianu 8

story of the Salamander and not the critical remarks of the 13th cen tury European traveller.

Probably, in the chapters on the Great Scythia, there is also a fragment taken from a Georgian Sinaxarus (ms. 1436, f. 61 ^r-^v) which tells the story of the ox or the stag which each year enters the Oiurch of St. George in the country of the Megrens ²⁸ (see: “Imago Mundi”, X, 1953, p. 116).

Another widely spread Mediaeval legend which is reflected in the chapter called “Great Scythia” is the one referring to the blood relationship exist-ing between the Hungarians and the French (though not restricted to them) as the descendants of the Tartars: "The Turks, Cossacks, Hungarians, French are all of Tartar origin” — ms. 1436, f. 63. This legend derives from the sto-ries also existing — partially — in Munster’s Cosmography ²⁷ about the flight of PrianTs descendants (even nominating sometimes Francus, son of Hector) from the defeated Troy, either to the marshes of Meotide (North-East of the Black Sea, in the proximity of old Hungarian tribes) or to the Pannonic plain where Buda is confused with Sycambria.

The second fragment of Costea DascaluTs manuscript entitled Impar-feala dintdi. Cozmograjie ce sa zace impdrteala pamantului pre kotara ęi pre alie seamne ce *>int in cercurile cerului (The Original Division. Cosmography or the Division of the Earth into Lines and other Signs existing in the Cercles of the Sky; ms. 1436, f. 68—75) comes from a source where we can detect the influence of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Dicaearchus and perpetuated in later Mediaeval versions ²⁸. The spherical earth (not fiat) sits motionless “in the middle of the sky circles, like a hub in the middle of the wheel” and is one of the four basie elements, a sort of Kernel for the other three, superposed into succesbive covers: water, air, fire (ms. 1436, f. 68^r_v). From Ancient sources also comes the theory that the earth is madę of three parts: Asia, Africa (or Lybia) and Europę (ms. 1436, f. 68^v).

A description of Arabia follows after the fragment consisting of Laus Asiae (ms. 1436, f. 69); here we can easily find common fragments with Sebastian Munster’s sources. Among them we can ąuote the story of the Phoe-nix Bird (ms. 1436, f. 71—72) also present ir. the book written by Isidor of Sevilla who mentions in his description of the earth that this mythical bird would live in Arabia Felix. ²⁹ Following the same idea, it is interesting to

²⁸    In the cosmographies, the Georgian people are considered “St. George's men", ac-cording to Chr. Rommel, op. cit., pp. 66. Surprising tales on the Georgian people are also told by Jacob Reineggs, Allgemeine historisch — topographische Beschreibung des Kauhasus, edited by F. E. Schróder, Gotha, Skt. Petersburg, lst part, 1797, pp. 27, 82 — 83, 120—122. Sce also C. Velculcscu in “Cotidianul. LA1" 20 March 1995.

³⁷    Sebastian Mfinster, op. cit., German edition of 1567. p. 101 ff; p. 1224 and the fol lowing. French edition of 1568, p. 83 and the following;'p. 1023 ff.; Dimitrie Carrtemir, Hro-tticul a vechimei romano-moldo-vlahilor, edited by Gr. C. Tocilescu, Bucharest, 1901, pp. 11 — 12, 277, 281 ff.; N. Fróret, (Euvres completes edited by Septchónes, Paris, 1796, vol. V, pp. 155 — 365 (De 1'origine des franęais et de leur etablissement dans la Gaule); Colette Beaune, Uutilisation politique du mythe des origines troyennes... in the collective volume Lectures mć-dievales de Virgile, Ecole franęaise de Romę, 1985, pp. 331 — 355 (see also pp. 197—198).

³⁸    Honorius Augustoduneusis, Imago mundi in Patrologia latina, edited by Mignę, vol. 172, col. 122— 133; Ch. V. Langlois, La Connaissance de la naturę... ; K. Wright, The Geo-graphical Lorę...; F. Lestringant, Le declin d'un savoir... See also “Manuscriptum", 1992, no. 1 — 4, pp. 225—226.

²⁹    Munster, German edition of 1567, p. 1367; Frenfch edition of 1568, p. 1244; Isidor of Sevilla, Opeia omnia in Patrologia latina, edited by Mignę, vol. 82, col. 498.