“Fragments on Cosmography”: the Slavonic Reception of Byzantine Cosmographic Literature

“Fragments on Cosmography” is a Slavonic translation of a Byzantine compilation comprising over forty paragraphs devoted to various natural sciences including geography, meteorology, astronomy, and astrology. Copies of this text are preserved in eighteen Slavonic manuscripts, dating from the 15th to the 17th century. They cоuld be categorised into two distinct groups: South Slavonic and East Slavonic. The present paper seeks to investigate both the relations between these two manuscript traditions and the ways in which Slavonic translators and scribes received and transmitted the Byzantine cosmographic corpus that underlies the Slavonic translation.
To fulfill this objective, two primary criteria would be taken into consideration. The first pertains to content: in what ways and to what extent does the Slavonic text adhere to the Byzantine original. Particular attention will be paid to whether the text reproduces the Byzantine original text word for word, paraphrases it, omits certain sections, or introduces modifications—and if so, of what nature are these alterations. This section will also seek to determine whether such decisions were influenced by the intended function of the text. The second criterion concerns translation strategies and linguistic features, whose examination can determine the stylistic and lexical choices of the Slavonic translators.