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11 Cosmographies in Romanian 163

In the bishopric of Ramnicu Valcea, Anatolie Ieromonahul, an assis-tant of the scholar Bishop Chesarie Ramniceanu, chose a similar text with the one of the above-mentioned manuscripts (ms. 3515 and 1556). Yet, ins-tead of the chapter added on Wallachia he introduces right in the middle of the cosmography, under the same running title, Istoria (History) written by the High Steward Constantin Cantacuzino and, at the finał portion of the manuscript, following Botero’s translation, he adds Hronicul Sloveanilor (The Chronicie of the Slovens) by Gheorghe Brancovici (Rom. ms. BAR

1267).

The manuscripts of Cozia (ms. 1556) and of Ramnicu Valcea (ms. 1267) respectively, have a detailed table of contents in contrast with the old one (3515). Such a table of contents (in a slightly altered form) can be found in a copy madę in the district of Bacau, sometime at 1785 (Rom. ms. BAR 3391) s².

Another copy dating from the middle of the 19th cen tury (Rom. ms.. BAR 1263) contains only several chapters of Botero’s translation, those referring to Austria, Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia (to the Nistru), Bes-sarabia (Bugeac). The copyst retained the chapter about Austria because of the details referring to the participation of the Romanian Voievodes in the siege of Vienna (1683).

In some of the manuscripts previously mentioned, the translation from Botero is entitled Cosmografie adeca Izvodirea lumii (Cosmography or the Description of the World) which might be connected with Gheogra/ie a name attributed to a fragment in another writing also existed in ms. 1267 (f. 366-367).

The chapter on the New World, although existing in the first part of Botero’s book (translated into Romanian) cannot be found in the Romanian versions. In the manuscript copied by Anatolie at Ramnic the white sheets of paper might prove an intention of copying it. Some Romanian readers sur-roundings of the early 18th century (when Botero was probably translated) did not absorb the information about the New World. Yet, it preserved ins-tead the information on '‘Priester John’s Land”, a legendary realm which is present in the European culture ever sińce the 12th century, whose location was either in Asia or in Africa and had mythical animals and utopian social model³³. Giovanni Botero mentions Priester John’s Land both in the chapter dedicated to Cathai (Asia) and in the one dedicated to Abassia (Africa) having no elear option. In the pages referring to Abassia, the Romanian interpreter gives the following version of the Italian expression "i popoli sud-diti al preste Gianni”: rumdnii (glossed: vecinii) popii lui Ioan ³⁴.

⁸²    See the bibliography in notę 7.

⁸³    See “Manuscriptum”, 1991, no. 2—4, p. 29 ff.; G. Postel in Des histoires orien-tales “ principalement des Turkes ou Turchikes et Schitique ou Tartaresąues, Paris, 1575, mentions Prestre łan cTAsie” and “Prestre łan d'Afrique” (p. 32). See also Richard Hennig, Das Land des Pristerkonigs Johannes in the volume ąuoted in notę 15, pp. 226—236; D. Wo-odward, Medieval Mappaemundi in The History oj Cartography, vol. I, Cartography... (see notę M), pp. 332 — 333.

⁸⁴    Ms. 1556, f. 145. For the possible connection existing between the armorial bearings with three heads of negroes attributed by Miinster to Priesters John's Land and the armorial bearings attributed by certain Western sources to the Romanian provinces,see “Manuscrip-tum”, 1991, no. 2—4, p. 30, notę. 18.