Berichte über den Moskauer Staat in italienischer Sprache aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. Einequellenkritische Studie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der italienischen Übersetzung derMoscovia Herbersteins by Walter LeitschReview by: Gerald StoneThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 72, No. 2 (Apr., 1994), p. 321Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4211500 .

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REVIEWS 32I

Leitsch, Walter. Berichte uber den Moskauer Staat in italienischer Sprache aus dem i6. Jahrhundert. Eine quellenkritische Studie mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung der italienischen Ubersetzung der Moscovia Herbersteins. Wiener Archiv fur Geschichte des Slaventums und Osteuropas. Institut f'ur Ost-und Siudosteuropaforschung der Universitait Wien, vol. xv. Bohlau, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, I 993 i86 pp. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. Appendix. No price available (paperback).

IN his first chapter (pp. I7-58) Professor Leitsch discusses iln general terms early printed accounts of Muscovy written in Italian. Of the eight publications in his list (those of Ambrosio Contarini [ I 487], Giosafat Barbaro [ 543], Paolo Giovo [I545], Sigismund von Herberstein [I550], Alberto Campense [Pighius] [I559] Maciej Miechowita [I56I], Alessandro Guagnino [I583] and Antonio Possevino [I 592] ), only the first two were originally in Italian. The others had all appeared earlier in Latin. Leitsch focuses on the Italian versions, however, because he is interested in the information available to readers who could read only Italian (p. 20). This becomes even clearer in the main body of the book (pp. 59- I 6o), which is a meticulous examination of the anonymous Italian translation (Venice, I550) of Sigismund von Herberstein's Rerum Moscoviticarum commentarii (Vienna, 1549). The bibliographies and index are followed by an appendix consisting of a facsimile of the 1550 translation ( I I unnumbered pages originally numbered as folios I38 to 192). The fact that the translation appeared so soon after the original is significant. It appears to have been rushed. It cannot, in Leitsch's estimation, be described as 'really bad', but it 'has its weaknesses' (p. 58). The ensuing one-hundred- page analysis of these weaknesses is impressive. Indeed, it may well be a model of philological acumen, but how it is expected to interest Slavists is not immediately obvious. On the history of Muscovy the Italian translation says nothing new and neither enhances not detracts from the value of the Latin original. The Italian perception of Muscovy, it is true, may have been influenced by both the translation and its defects, but such matters are beyond the scope of Professor Leitsch's book. Hertford College GERALD STONE

Oxford

Bocatius, loannes. Opera quae exstant omnia: prosaica. Edited by Ferenc Csonka. Bibliotheca Scriptorum Medii Recentisque Aevorum, Series nova, vol. XXI/3. Akademiai kiad6, Budapest, I 992. 583 pp. Bibliography. Index. No price available.

IOANNEs BOCATIUS (Bock) was a Saxon Lutheran, born in I569 (not I549, as hitherto believed). A talented poet and scholar, he became head of the Lutheran school in Eperjes (Presov) in I594 and five years later moved to the larger school in Kassa (Kosice). In 1598 the Emperor Rudolf II granted him the title of 'Imperial Poet Laureate' and ennobled him. Elected to the town council in I603, he led a vain protest against the seizure by the Catholics of St Elizabeth's Church, then used by the Lutherans. After this, not surprisingly,

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