Russian Flat Earthism

Like many of its ancient traditions, Russian flat earthism is derived from Byzantine tradition. Texts like the ‘Christian Topography’ of Kosmas Indikopleustes were translated from Greek to Slavonic.

Today only three Byzantine Greek manuscripts of the Christian Topography are known to still exist, but approximately 100 Slavonic manuscripts of this book from across many centuries survive giving evidence that Russia has preserved a tradition of flat earthism that has survived intact since Byzantine times.

A 200 page history of Russian cosmography was written by Anne-Laurence Caudano entitled:
‘Let There Be Lights in the Firmament of the Heaven’

This history is published and sold by Palaeoslavica for $50 postpaid.
https://www.palaeoslavica.com/id5.html

Many scanned facsimiles of Slavonic manuscripts of the ‘Christian Topography’ from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are online. Several of these manuscripts are replete with cosmographical and astronomical illustrations:
https://rusneb.ru/search/?q=%D0%A5%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F+%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%8F&c%25255B%25255D=3&c%25255B%25255D=14&c%25255B%25255D=30&c%25255B%25255D=31&c%25255B%25255D=25&c%25255B%25255D=23&c%25255B%25255D=7&c%25255B%25255D=5&c%25255B%25255D=15&c%25255B%25255D=20&c%25255B%25255D=13&c%25255B%25255D=4&c%25255B%25255D=22&c%25255B%25255D=28

I found one Slavonic manuscript of this book from as late as the early 1800’s replete with full colour cosmographical illustrations. This is not very long at all prior to Rowbotham’s time.
This manuscript was produced some time between 1800 and 1825 which makes sense. The Old Believers were repressed by the Romanovs, but they had a period of respite from the accession of Catherine in 1762 to the accession of Nicholas I in 1825 who renewed the old persecution.
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/gdc/gdclccn/20/18/69/40/11/2018694011/2018694011.pdf

Although the Christian Topography and flat earthism were evidently alive and well in the Russia of Ivan IV Grozny, Russian scholars indicate that Peter the Great reversed this, and after Peter Romanov flat earthism is found almost exclusively among the Old Believers. The early nineteenth century Slavonic manuscript I found was produced by Russian Old Believers.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2018694011/

Concerning the earlier Byzantine history of this famous flat earth book, a sharp and perceptive art teacher named Travis Lee Clark has written the best study I’ve seen correcting many errors and calumnies against it by its detractors both modern and ancient:

‘Imaging the Cosmos’
By Travis Lee Clark
https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/api/collection/p245801coll10/id/2022/page/0/inline/p245801coll10_2022_0