O CARTE MANUSCRISĂ PIERDUTĂ. GEOGRAFIA LUMII COPIATĂ DE SAVA POPOVICI DIN RĂȘINARI (1785)

👤Author

Name: Liviu Bordaș
Affiliation: Colegiul Noua Europă, București
Contact: liviubordas@gmail.com

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: BORDAȘ, Liviu. „O carte manuscrisă pierdută. Geografia lumii copiată de Sava Popovici din Rășinari (1785)”. În RITL, New Series, XVII, No 1-4, January-December 2023, p. 369-375. doi: 10.59277/ritl.2023.17.29
Titlul: O CARTE MANUSCRISĂ PIERDUTĂ. GEOGRAFIA LUMII COPIATĂ DE SAVA POPOVICI DIN RĂȘINARI (1785)
Title: A LOST MANUSCRIPT BOOK. THE WORLD GEOGRAPHY COPIED BY SAVA POPOVICI FROM RĂȘINARI (1785)
Pages: 369-375
Language: Romanian
URL: https://ritl.ro/pdf/2023/29_L_Bordas.pdf
DOI: 10.59277/ritl.2023.17.29

Abstract: The paper discusses a manuscript book – known in a copy made by the priest Sava Popovici (1735-1808) from Rășinari in the year 1785 –, which was described in 1912 and 1915. Its trace was completely lost afterwards and it attracted attention only once, in a marginal way. Our research has led to the identification of the original – a Russian introductory book for the students of the Saint Petersburg academic gymnasium – and to a plausible proposal for its anonymous author: the Prussian astronomer Christian Nicolaus von Winsheim (1694-1751), who was teaching after the famous schoolbook of Johann Hübner. We are also proposing the most probable author of the translation: the schoolmaster Radu Duma (174?-1791) from Brașov. Its final sections discuss the image of India as described in its chapter on Asia and, respectively, its probable use as a textbook in a number of schools from the South-Eastern part of Transylvania: Brașov, Rășinari, and Sibiu.

Keywords: geography, translation, Johann Hübner, manuscript books, Transylvania.