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The Christian Topography of Kosmas Indikopleustes 395 The Christian Topography of Kosmas Indikopleustes 395 Chapter 27 The Christian Topography of Kosmas Indikopleustes Maja Kominko The majority of illustrated Byzantine texts, such as biblical books, homilies or lives of saints, acquired images in the process of copying. In the case of the 6th-century Christian Topography, however, we know that the images accom- panied the text from the beginning. We have less certainty about how closely do the images in the three extant Byzantine copies, which date from the 9th (*Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 699) and 11th centuries (Sinai, Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sin. gr. 1186 and *Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Laur. Plut. 9.28), reflect the images in the original.1 This question has importance beyond the context of the Christian Topography: inasmuch as we can confirm that the extant miniatures reflect those in the 6th-century work, the treatise offers a unique insight into how the relationship between word and image was constructed, and how the different potential of these two media was understood. In addition to the three complete illustrated codices of the Christian Topography, an abridged illustrated excerpt of the text appeared in the 11th- century Smyrna Physiologus codex (Izmir, Evangelical School, B-08), a manu- script destroyed by fire in 1922. Its illustrations had little similarity with images in the three complete Byzantine codices of the treatise, and reflected a Marian interpretation of the text that has little to do with the original author’s inten- tion. We also have Russian illustrated codices of the Christian Topography. The oldest dates to 1495, but scholars agree that the date of the Slavonic transla- tion should be situated between the 12th and 13th century. I will not take these codices into consideration, as they cast little light on the original, 6th-century work.2 The Christian Topography was written anonymously, however excerpts of the work in manuscripts from the 11th century onwards sometimes identified 1 For the edition of the text see Kosmas Indikopleustes, Christian Topography, ed./trans. W. Wolska-Conus. For text and images in the three illustrated byzantine codices of the treatise see Kominko, The World of Kosmas. 2 For Smyrna Physiologus manuscripts, see Bernabò, Il Fisiologo di Smirne; for the Russian co- dices of the Christian Topography see Piotrovskaja, Khristianskaia Topografiia. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/9789004346239_028 396 Kominko the author as “Kosmas Indikopleustes”, that is, Kosmas who sailed to India.3 Although the authenticity of this name seems dubious, it is now customary and I will continue to use it, particularly as none of the numerous attempts at identifying the author of the Christian Topography is fully persuasive. We know that the treatise was written in Alexandria, shortly after 543 AD. The author declares he has no formal education and disdains the enkyklios paideia, yet the use of rhetorical figures and his broad knowledge of literature belie these avowals. He further states that all his knowledge derives from his master Patrikios, who came to Alexandria “from the land of Chaldeans”. Patrikios has been identified with Mar Aba, a teacher in the East Syrian School of Nisibis and later a katholikos of Persia.4 It was probably through Patrikios that the influ- ence of East Syrian exegesis was transmitted into the Christian Topography and with it the teachings of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Kosmas never mentions Theodore, but this omission has been explained by the date of the treatise, written shortly after Justinian’s edict against the Three Chapters (543 ad) and just a few years before the Council of Constantinople (553 ad), which con- demned Theodore’s teaching.5 We should keep in mind, however, that while many of the notions discussed in the Christian Topography can be traced to the teaching of Theodore, they seem to be mediated through East Syrian sources. Kosmas also follows the East Syrian authors in incorporating the secular litera- ture into theological and exegetical system. In terms of content, however, most of the issues he discusses belong to contemporaneous debates in Alexandria. Most important of these is the issue of the eternity of the universe. By the time Kosmas wrote his treatise, this concept had already been disputed by Christian Alexandrian authors, Zacharias Scholasticos, and later, more successfully, by Kosmas’ contemporary John Philoponos.6 Neither of these authors rejected the spherical model of the universe. Kosmas’ take was different: he believed that spherical and perpetually rotating universe must necessarily be eternal. Because the eternity of universe was unacceptable for Christians, he argued that the universe could not be spherical. He sought to replace a spherical model of the universe with a system where the physical and temporal charac- teristics, biblical interpretation and science are in harmony. In the system he 3 Majority of autobiographical information appears in Kosmas Indikopleustes, Christian Topogaphy II: 1-2, ed./trans. W. Wolska-Conus; for the manuscript where the epithet appears, see ibid., pp. 109-15. For the use of this epithet in late antiquity see Bagnall/Sheridan, “Greek and Latin documents”. 4 On Mar Aba and the School Nisibis, see Becker, Fear of God, pp. 113-21. 5 On Theodore’s teaching and on 553 Council, see Price, The Acts of the Council. 6 John Philoponos, Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World, trans. C. Wildberg; Elweskiöld, Cosmas Indicopleustes and John Philoponus..
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