Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/462

 COSMAS

404

COSMAS

The remains of the martyrs were buried in the city of Cyrus in Syria; the Emperor Justinian I (527-565) sumptuously restored the city in their honour. Hav- ing been cured of a dangerous illness by the interces- sion of C'osmas and Damian, Justinian, in gratitude for their aid, rebuilt and adorned their church at Con- stantinople, and it became a celebrated place of pil- grimage. At Rome Pope Felix IV (526-530) erected a chiu-ch in their honour, the mosaics of which are still among the most valuable art-remains of the city. The Greek Church celebrates the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian on 1 July, 17 October, and 1 November, and venerates three pairs of saints of the same name and profession. Cosmas and Damian are regarded as the patrons of physicians and surgeons and are sometimes

landi in his "Bibliotheca veterum patrum" (Venice, 1776), and in Migne, P. Cf. (Paris, 1S04), LXXXVIII, 51-476. A French translation of the most important parts is found in Charton, "Voyageurs ancieus et modernes" (Paris, 1S55); a complete English transla- tion, with notes and a critical introduction, was issued for the Hakluyt Society by J. W. McCrindle (London, 1S97). The work is divided into twelve books and contains a descri]3tion of the universe, as Cosmas con- structed it in his imagination, and an account of those regions which he had visited, or concerning which he had gathered information. According to Cosmas the world is a rectangular structure in two sections, their length much greater than their breadth, and corres- ponding in form and proportions to the Tabernacle of

tND Damian (I

represented with medical emblems. They are in- voked in the Canon of the Mass and in the Litany of the Saints.

Acta .S.S'., 27 Sept.; Schleyer in Kirchenlex.; .\lois. Das Lehen itnd Wirken d. hi. Cosmas und Damian, Patrone der Aerzte (Vienna, 1876); Deubner, Kosmas und Damian (Leipzig, 1907).

Gabriel Meiek.

Cosmas Indicopleustes (CosM.is the Indlin Voyager), a Greek traveller and geographer of the first half of the sixth century, b. at Alexandria, Egypt. Cosmas probably received only an elementary educa- tion, as he was intended for a mercantile life, and in his earlier years was engaged in business pursuits. It may be, however, that by further study he increased his knowledge, since his notes and observations show more than ortlinary training. His business took him to the regions lying south of Egypt, the farthest point of his travels in this direction being Cape Guardafui. He traversed the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, and gathered information about lands lying far to the East ; but it is not certain that he actu- ally visited India. In his later years he entered the monastery of Raithu on the Peninsula of Sinai. If it be necessary to suppose, as some investigators assert, that Cosmas was at any time a Nestorian, it would appear from his work, the "Christian Topography", that, at least towards the close of his life, he returned to the orthodox faith. While an inmate of the mon- astery he wrote the "Topography" above mentioned, a work which gives him a position of importance among the geographers of the early Middle Ages.

The "Christian Tojjography " has been preserved in two manuscript copies, one in the Laurentian Library at Florence, and the other in the Vatican. In the second half of the seventeenth century Isaac Vossius, Emerie Bigot, and Mclchis^dech Thovenot first made the work known in a fragmentary way by |niblishing extracts from it. The first complete and critical edi- tion, accom]ianied by a Latin translation, was issued by Bernard de Moiitfaucon in his "CoUectio nova pa- trum et scriptorum gnecorum (Paris, 1707), II, 11.3- 345. The "Topograjihy" was also printed by Gal-

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the Old Testament. The base is formed by the sur- face of the earth, around which flows the ocean; on the other side of the ocean lies another — unknowns-con- tinent, from which rise the walls that support the firmament above. The stars are carried by the angels in a circle around the firmament. Above the firma- m ment springs a vault which separates the heaven of li the blessed from the world beneath. The theory that ker there is an antipodes, says Cosmas, is a doctrine to be rejected. The earth rises towards the north and ends in a cone-shaped mountain behind which the sun con- tinues its wanderings during the night, and the nights are long or short according as the position of the sun is near the base or the summit of the mountain.

This curious attempt to harmonize a childish Bibli- cal exegesis with ordinary phenomena and the current opinions of the time is at least superior to the extraor- dinary geographical hypotheses of that day. Aside from the fact that the theories of Cosmas exercised no influence, they are not of sufficient importance to affect the genuine worth of several portions of the "Topography". The value of these passages rests on the methodical conscientiousness of the simple merchant, as it is seen, for example, in the careful copy of the so-called Inscription of Adulis (Monu- yyientum AduUtanum) which has been preserved to 'tjl, Greek epigraphy only in the copy of Cosmas. Cos- mas, with the aid of his travelling companion, Menas, took a copy of it in 522 for the governor of the Chris- tian King Elesbaan of Abyssinia, retaining a replica for himself. Of equal importance is the information he collected concerning Zanzibar and the Indian [;„ Ocean, and what he learned as to the trade of .Vbys- sinia with the interior of Africa and of Egyi^t with the East. The best-known and most celebrateii part of .^,^ the "Topography" is the description, in tin' ninth ~ J book, of Ceylon and of the plants and animals ol ,! India. The work also gives much valuable informa- ^,! tion concerning the extension of Christianity in liif ■ ^„. day. The Vatican manuscript of the "Christiai ; -.'? Topography" has explanatory maps and sketches .,'; either made by Cosmas him.self or prepared under hii ■■J^ direction; they are of value as the first efforts of pa i-j?','

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