Ni{ i Vizantija XII 143 Rostislava Georgieva Todorova ORTHODOX COSMOLOGY AND COSMOGRAPHY: ICONOGRAPHIC MANDORLA AS IMAGO MUNDI* Iconography and Cosmography Iconography as a symbolic expression of the truths of faith is inseparable part of the Orthodox Christian tradition. Serving as “theology in images” 1 equal to the theology in words, according St. Basil the Great 2 , it reveals religious doctrine of Orthodoxy in its fullness. Dogmatic and liturgical character of ico- nography does not consist only of visual representation of sacred images and events. Orthodox icons are themselves depicted eschatology – a glimpse to the future perfect world that is to come, according to the eschatological words of St. Apostle Paul /”I Cor. 13:12”/ - and as such, they express Orthodox understand- ing of the world in its entireness. 3 Orthodox iconography is focused on the idea of representing the cos- mos, the essence of God’s creatio ex nihilo, thus serving as a visual cosmology and thence - as cosmography of all being. Icons depict image of the archetypal world in its integrity, unachievable for the limited humans’ abilities, and are ontologically inseparable from this archetype. 4 Therefore, although not identi- cal at all with cartography, iconography has been always related with the idea of representing the world trough symbolic images, cartographic symbols, and topographic elements. 5 * Acknowledgements: I would like to express my gratitude to the Getty Foundation and to the Council of American Overseas Research Centers for granting me the Getty Research Exchange Fellowship for the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East – 2012. Sincere thanks are due to the Bulgarian National Science Fund for funding of research project № ДПОСТДОК 02-1/11.01.2010. Thanks are due to the Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen for funding of research project № РД-08-299/15.03.2013. 1 Ouspensky, L. Theology of the Icon. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992, 6 2 St. Basil the Great. A Homily of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, In: Patrologia Graeca (J.P. Migne ed.), Paris, 1857-1866, 31, 509A 3 Todorova, R. Ikonnata perspektiva. V. Turnovo: Faber, 2009, 9-10 4 Bychkov, V. The Aestetic Face of Being: Art in the Theology of Pavel Florensky, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1993, 81-83 5 Della Dora, V. “Windows on Heanev (and Earth): The Poetics and Politics of Post-