Leviathan: The Digression by Guido de Columna translated in Russian

Abstract

Most people in old Russia were not informed about the name of Leviathan that is used in several books of the Bible to designate a mysterious sea monster. This is why Theodor Ivanovich Karpov, a well-educated Moscow aristocrat, having encountered the name of Leviathan in a translation of the Third Book of Ezra, asked Maxim the Greek, who had just arrived from Athos, for clarification. Karpov addressed a special letter on this topic to the learned Greek monk. However, he never received a reply, or possibly Maxim the Greek’s response was later lost. Instead, starting from the 16th century, a small article entitled On Leviathan used to be copied (and then used to be published) together with Karpov’s letter. Although the article On Leviathan lacks any signs of epistolary form, scribes and then publishers used to perceive it as Maxim the Greek’s response to his friend’s letter. As it turns out, the article is actually an extract from Chapter 10 of Guido de Columna’s Historia destructionis Troiae. Historia was translated from Latin at the end of the 15th century or (more likely) in the 1520s–1530s. The text of the article On Leviathan is taken from this translation. We have reason to think that the excerpt On Leviathan was extracted from the translation of Historia and added to Karpov’s epistle by a scribe from the Chudov Monastery. This was done at the end of the 16th century. The article On Leviathan is published en regard with the text from the Latin original and from the Russian translation of Historia destructionis Troiae.

DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2025.1.04