EARLY COMPARATIVE SLAVONIC STUDIES
RADIUS, J.
S. C. de. Characteristic Features of Russian and Slavic Poetry, with Specimens, translated by English Authors …
London, printed by Seyfang & Co. [for the author], 1854.
Small 8vo, pp. [viii], 80, [4 (list of subscribers)]; a very good copy in the original red decorated cloth, spine lettered gilt, edges gilt.
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S. C. de. Characteristic Features of Russian and Slavic Poetry, with Specimens, translated by English Authors …
First and only edition. This little book contains what must be some of the earliest translations of Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovene, Slovak, and Sorb verse into English. It certainly offers an early example of comparative Slavonic studies. Most of the specimens, however, are Russian, among them Delvig’s famous ‘Solovei moi, solovei’ (here ‘Nightingale, O Nightingale’).
We can find nothing about the author, who describes himself as ‘a Native of Volhynia, Southern Russia’ (one of the oldest Slav settlements in Europe, now western Ukraine). He wrote a handful of books, the most popular being an Abridged History of Christianity, which saw three editions.