"Ṣaraṫustricae Gâṫae" ("Zarathustra’s Gathas") From the Recent Acquisition

The PNHCMR collection of printed editions has been enlarged with a book  «Ṣaraṫustricae Gâṫae» (that is «Zarathustra’s Gathas») published in 1871 in Saint Petersburg. The Gathas are the most significant and venerated part of the sacred book of Zoroastrianism called the Avesta, that had the form of poetic hymns of Zarathustra addressed to the god Ahura Mazda. The book contains the authentic Avestan texts of the hymns and their translations into Latin. The translations were made by a famous Orientalist scholar of Belarusian origin Kaetan Kasovič. They were those translations that he was appreciated for by the international academic community. The interesting fact is that the famous scholar started his scientific path at Polack Piarist School.

The book has a dedicatory inscription by K.Kasovič to his colleague, literary scholar Piotr Piekarskij, dated back to June 25, 1871.

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