Nature, Artichokes, and Salvation in the Oracles of Leo: Illustrated Post-Byzantine Eschatological Literature in Greek and Turkish

In the aftermath of 1453, the post-Byzantine population of Ottoman Constantinople centered their hopes in the coming of a True Emperor at the end of time. Eschatological literature attributed to Leo the Wise was circulated in both the high registers of Greek as well as the vernacular and all surviving manuscripts of the so-called Leo Oracles date from the post-Byzantine period. These Oracles rely on natural philosophical principles, make extensive use of symbolic language pertaining to early modern science, and point to the City as the locus of both tyranny and universal salvation. The vernacular Oracles refer to the True Emperor as "the gardener of the whole universe", to ethnicities with the names of animals and vegetables, and envision the nature of reality to be constituted of the four elements. Illuminated manuscripts of the high register Oracles depict Emperors that precede the True Emperor in the guise of Ottoman Sultans with scenes of devastation. Bilingual manuscripts of this high register literature invoke the Latin word 'elementum' to refer to both the characters of the alphabet and to the building blocks of Nature: 'stoicheion'. Vernacular Oracles also make extensive use of early modern scientific-philosophical expertise. The uses of vegetable and animal names in the vernacular Oracles rely on symbolic associations. Artichokes with their medicinal qualities as a hepatic cure are symbolic because they represent the regeneration of Nature in the Spring and associations with fire, water, and earth. In similar manner, wolves are also invoked. Tellingly, the Oracles did not only circulate in written format but were told, retold, elaborated, illustrated, and translated into other vernaculars beside Greek. European travellers to Ottoman Constantinople recorded these legends in numerous languages. Turkish translations of the Oracles survive in early modern European editions of Turkish grammar and dictionaries as well as in pictoral dossiers.