210 MRS. WALTER MAUNDER, ON ASTRONOMICAL 



Dr. Charles gives no reason except that they are not given 

 universally in B, and that neither does Professor Sokelov give 

 them in his text. Since Professor Sokelov had A before him, 

 this last depends solely on Professor Sokelov's judgment. 



Third, the references to the eighth, ninth and tenth heavens 

 Dr. Charles says: 



"This ... is clearly an interpolation. It is not found 

 either in B or Sok. Furthermore, throughout the rest of 'the book 

 only seven heavens are mentioned or implied." 



It is necessary to examine into these interpolations, since it 

 is obvious that they affect seriously the question of the date of 

 the book. 



When could such interpolations have been introduced ? 

 They might be introduced in a Slavonic MS. by the scribe of 

 A, and so, necessarily, not affect B or any other manuscript 

 copy of T ; or by the translator who produced T, or by a later 

 copyist of 0, the original Greek MS. 



If they were introduced by the scribe of A, then they were 

 made in the Slavonic language and by a Slavonic writer, and 

 this implies that in the Middle Ages there was a Slavonic 

 writer of considerable astronomical knowledge, who thought it 

 worth while to rewrite a very sapless mystical tract for the sole 

 purpose of introducing these astronomical interpolations. 



It further implies that B — not A — best represents the original 

 translation, T, into Slavonic ; for it is clear that A and B, so far 

 as they give the same details, do not represent independent 

 translations, but a single one. 



If the interpolations were introduced by the translator of T, 

 then no weight can be given to their absence from B or other 

 manuscripts, for these, equally with A, were ultimately derived 

 from T. A, on this hypothesis, best represents T. 



The same argument applies if the interpolations were intro- 

 duced by the scribe of 0. If there were two Greek MSS., one 

 with the interpolations, the other without, it still remains 

 certain, since A and B, so far as they cover the same ground, are 

 not independent translations, but more or less faithful repro- 

 ductions of a single translation, that it is the fuller Greek text 

 that must have been in the translator's hands. Hence the 

 deficiencies of B as compared with A represent omissions from 

 the Greek original ; they are no evidence as to interpolations. 

 A, therefore, best represents 0. 



But, since 0 (afterwards rendered into Slavonic) must have 

 been in existence about the 9th century a.d., some pertinent 



