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Bavarian Geographer

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The epithet "Bavarian Geographer" (Template:Langx) is the conventional name for the anonymous author of a short Latin medieval text containing a list of the tribes in Central and Eastern Europe, headed Template:Language with name/for.

The name "Bavarian Geographer" was first bestowed (in its French form, "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}") in 1796 by Polish count and scholar Jan Potocki.<ref>J. Potocki. Fragments historiques et geographiques sur la Scythie, Sarmatie, et les Slaves. Brunsvic, 1796.</ref> The term is now also used at times to refer to the document itself.

It was the first Latin source to claim that all Slavs originated in the same homeland, called the Zeriuani.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

OriginEdit

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The short document, written in Latin, was discovered in 1772 in the Bavarian State Library, Munich by Louis XV's ambassador to the Saxon court, Comte Louis-Gabriel Du Buat-Nançay.<ref>Le comte du Buat. Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Europe. T. 11. Paris, 1772.</ref> It had been acquired by the Wittelsbachs with the collection of the antiquarian Hermann Schädel (1410–85) in 1571. The document was much discussed in the early 19th-century historiography, notably by Nikolai Karamzin and Joachim Lelewel.<ref>J. Lelewel. Winulska Sławiańszczyzna z Geografa bawarskiego, Tygodnik Wileński, nr 47, z dn. 8 paźdzernika 1816, s. 333, i w nastęnych numerach 48–50. Also: Joachim Lelewel, Geographe du Moyen Age III, Bruxelles 1852, s.21–45.</ref>

The provenance of the document is disputed. Although early commentators suggested that it could have been compiled in Regensburg,<ref name="Lowmianski1">Henryk Łowmiański, O pochodzeniu Geografa bawarskiego, Roczniki Historyczne, R. 20, 1955, s.9–58</ref> the list seems to have been taken from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, recorded in the 9th century in the library of the Reichenau Abbey and named after a local librarian.<ref>The codex contains Boethius's treatise on geometry. See: Novy R. Die Anfänge des böhmischen Staates, 1: Mitteleuropa im 9. Jh. Praha, 1969.</ref> Based on these findings, Bernhard Bischoff attributes it to a monk active at Reichenau from the 830s to 850s.<ref>Bernhard Bischoff. Die südostdeutschen Schreibschulen und Bibliotheken in der Karolingerzeit. Bd. 1.2. Aufl. Wiesbaden, 1960.</ref> Aleksandr Nazarenko finds it more probable that the list was composed in the 870s, when Saint Methodius is believed to have resided at Reichenau. The document may have been connected with his missions in the Slavic lands.<ref>{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. Moscow, 2001. Pages 52–70.</ref> Henryk Łowmiański demonstrated that the list consists of two parts, which may be datable to different periods and attributed to distinct authors.<ref name="Lowmianski2">Henryk Łowmiański, O identyfikacji nazw Geografa bawarskiego, Studia Źródłoznawcze, t. III: 1958, s.1–22.</ref>

In modern times, some scholars attribute the information from this document to be limited, because it is largely geographic in nature, and its understanding of Eastern European geography is limited, so it may be a case of cosmography.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

ContentEdit

The document has a short introductory sentence and a list of 58 tribal names in Central and Eastern Europe, east of the Elbe and north of the Danube to the Volga River to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea (most of them of Slavonic origin, with Ruzzi, and others such as Vulgarii, etc.).<ref name="Lowmianski1"/> Absent on the list are Polans, Pomeranians and Masovians, tribes first of whom are believed to have settled along the shores of the Warta river during the 8th century,<ref>Andrzej Buko: Archeologia Polski wczesnośredniowiecznej: odkrycia, hipotezy, interpretacje. Warszawa, 2005.</ref> as well Dulebes, Volhynians and White Croats, but instead mentioning several unknown tribes hard to identify.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> There is also some information about the number of strongholds (Template:Langx) possessed by some of the tribes, however the number in several instances seems exaggerated.<ref name="Lowmianski1"/><ref name="Lowmianski2"/> The list consists of two parts, first describing the tribes in the Eastern neighborhood of Francia (iste sunt regiones ... nostris), while the second or near or outside the zone of the first going in different directions. The tribes can be geographically grouped into Danubian, Silesian-Lusatian, Baltic, and Eastern Vistulan-Caspian.<ref name="Lowmianski1"/><ref name="Lowmianski2"/>

List of tribesEdit

According to Łowmiański (1958), in the first list are mentioned:

In the second list are mentioned: Template:Columns-list

ReferencesEdit

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BibliographyEdit

External linksEdit

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Template:Bavarian Geographer Template:Carolingian geography

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