«THE BOOK OF ANIMALS AND BIRDS»: ONE OF THE LOST TRANSLATIONS OF THE END OF THE 17TH CENTURY

The article looks into edition of the zoological encyclopedia by a Polish doctor and scholar and Jan Jonston. The convolute made of the volumes of the encyclopedia and kept in the library of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science (the department of the Library of the Academy of Sciences at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences), is notable for handwritten Russian glosses which accompany Latin names of animals on the illustrations. There are approximately 2000 Russian glosses, translating Latin and German names of animals. The authors hypothesize that this convolute may be the very “Book to birds and animals”, a book which was translated by famous 17th-century poet and preacher Simeon of Polotsk. According to the sources, the translator was rewarded by the tsar Fiodor Alekseevich, but the translation has not been discovered until now. The hypothesis is grounded in analysis of written sources and handwritings of Simeon of Polotsk and his disciple Silvestr Medvedev. The authors conclude that glosses were likely to be written by Medvedev. In the article, the provenance of the convolute is described, and translation strategies of animal names are studied in the context of literary work of Simeon of Polotsk. The authors compare the translated into Russian animal names from the convolute with animal names found in Simeon’s poems and sermons, as well as with the translations given in the Latin dictionary compiled by Epifanij Slavinetskij. In the supplement to the article, examples of Latin animal names and their Russian translations are published.