Dmitry Gerasimov

Dmitry Gerasimov (Russian language: Дмитрий Герасимов; also known as Demetrius Erasmius, Mitya the Translator or Dmitri the Scholastic, born ca 1465, d. after 1535), was a Russian translator, diplomat, philologist and informant of Renaissance scholars such as Paolo Giovio or Sigismund von Herberstein.

Dmitry presumably lived in Novgorod for the most of his life and co-operated with Novgorodian clerics of that time. He studied in his youth in Livonia where he got knowledge of Latin and German languages. This knowledge was extensively used when he served both as translator of religious books (including Hieronymus' Vulgata comments, commented Psalter compiled by Bruno of Würzburg, some tracts aimed to combat the Sect of Skhariya the Jew etc.) and interpreter of Muscovite embassies to Emperor Maximilian I, Prussia, Sweden and Denmark. In 1525 he was an ambassador in his own right to Pope Clement VII as the Grand Duke Vasily III desired to join the anti-Ottoman League. During his stay in Rome, Dmitri narrated to Paolo Giovio some geographical data concerning Russia and northern countries. These data were edited by Giovio in a separate book, subsequently mapped by Battista Agnese in Venice and were pattern for the XVI century European maps of Muscovy.

Gerasimov also translated Ars grammatica by Aelius Donatus, juxtaposing the Latin grammar to the Church Slavonic one and proposing a Slavic gramar terminology. He was a prominent collaborator of Maxim Grek, Greek-born humanist Michael Trivolis who worked in Russia.

It is widely held that Gerasimov was the Russian translator of the Maximilianus Transylvanus' Letter on Magellan voyage.

Sources

• Leo Bagrow. At the Sources of the Cartography of Russia // Imago Mundi, Vol. 16, 1962 (1962), pp. 33-48
• Der russische Donat: Vom lateinischen Lehrbuch zur russischen Grammatik. Hrsg. und komment v. V. S. Tomelleri. Köln, 2002
• Tomelleri V. S. Il Salterio commentario di Brunone di Würzburg in area slavo-orientale: Fra traduzione e tradizione (con unè appendice di testi), München, 2004.