Dmitry Gerasimov was a Russian translator, diplomat and philologist; he also provided some of the earliest information on Muscovy to Renaissance scholars such as Paolo Giovio

Paolo Giovio

thumb|Paolo Giovio.thumb|Monument to Paolo Giovo by [[Francesco da Sangallo]], in [[San Lorenzo di Firenze|San Lorenzo]] Basilica, [[Florence]].Paolo Giovio was an Italian physician, historian and biographer, and prelate.He is chiefly known as the author of a celebrated work of...

 and Sigismund von Herberstein

Sigismund von Herberstein

Siegmund Freiherr von Herberstein, , was an Carniolan diplomat, writer, historian and member of the Holy Roman Empire Imperial Council...

.

Gerasimov presumably lived in Novgorod for the most of his life and worked mainly with Novgorodian clerics. In his youth he studied in Livonia

Livonia

Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida...

, where he learnt Latin and German. These languages he put to extensive use in his translations of religious texts (including Hieronymus

Hieronymus

Hieronymus, pronounced , the Greek and Latin form of the name Jerome, means "sacred name."It may refer to several people:* Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, better known as Saint Jerome * Hiëronymus Emiliani, better known as St...

' comments on the Vulgate

Vulgate

The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...

, commentary on the Psalter

Psalter

A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...

 compiled by Bruno of Würzburg, and some tracts aimed at combating the Sect of Skhariya the Jew

Sect of Skhariya the Jew

The Sect of Skhariya the Jew, much more commonly known as the Heresy of the Judaizers or Zhidovstvuyushchiye, was a sect that appeared in Novgorod the Great and Grand Duchy of Moscow in the second half of the 15th century and marked the beginning of a new era of heresy in Russia...

), and as an interpreter on Muscovite embassies to Emperor Maximilian I, Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. In 1525 he was an ambassador in his own right to Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII

Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534.-Early life:...

, when the Grand Duke Vasily III desired to join the anti-Ottoman League. During his stay in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Dmitri related details to Paolo Giovio

Paolo Giovio

thumb|Paolo Giovio.thumb|Monument to Paolo Giovo by [[Francesco da Sangallo]], in [[San Lorenzo di Firenze|San Lorenzo]] Basilica, [[Florence]].Paolo Giovio was an Italian physician, historian and biographer, and prelate.He is chiefly known as the author of a celebrated work of...

 of the geography of Russia and the northern countries. This information was compiled by Giovio into a separate book, and subsequently mapped by Battista Agnese

Battista Agnese

Battista Agnese was a cartographer from the Republic of Genoa, who worked in the Venetian Republic.In 1525 he prepared an early map of Muscovy that was based on the geographical data, narrated to Paolo Giovio by the Russian ambassador Dmitry Gerasimov.His workshop produced at least 71 manuscript...

 in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 and was a pattern for most 16th-century maps of Muscovy.

Gerasimov also translated Ars grammatica by Aelius Donatus

Aelius Donatus

Aelius Donatus was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. The only fact known regarding his life is that he was the tutor of St...

, juxtaposing the Latin grammar against that of Church Slavonic and proposing a terminology for Slavic grammar. 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

Maximilianus Transylvanus

Maximilianus Transylvanus , also Maximilianus of Transylvania and Maximilian von Sevenborgen , was a sixteenth century author based in Flanders who wrote the earliest account published on Magellan and Elcano's first circumnavigation of the world...

' Letter on Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....

 voyage.

Sources

• Leo Bagrow
  Leo Bagrow
  Leo Bagrow , born Lev Semenovich Bagrow, was a historian of cartography and the founder of the journal Imago Mundi.-External Links:* at , Harvard University...
  
  . 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.