HERBERSTEIN, Sigismund von, Paulo GIOVIO, Paul ODERBORN and others
Rerum Moscoviticarum auctores varii, unum in corpus nunc primum congesti
Francofurti, Cl. Marnius & Ioann. Aubrius,: 1600
Russia in the 16th century Russia - with the three maps --- A tall copy with wide margins of this compilation containing the first detailed eyewitness ethnography of Russia: "the most important historical and ethnographical work on early 16th c. Russia" (Dr Rima Greenhill, Stanford University), a country largely unknown to Europeans at that time. With contemporary provenance: from a major aristocratic French library, built over several generations, mostly in the 16th and 17th centuries, to reach more than 40,000 volumes. Many are now part of various French public libraries, including the Bibliothèque nationale. Herberstein (1486-1566), an Austrian diplomat who was twice sent to Russia as the Habsburg ambassador to Moscow in 1517 and 1526, was the first foreign visitor to speak the language, read Cyrillic and record his experiences. The book was so warmly welcomed among the courts in Europe that "from its original publication in 1549, it became a veritable 'Baedeker' of travel narratives. [Herberstein] can be said to be almost singlehandedly responsible for the European image of Russia over several centuries" (Dr Rima Greenhill, Stanford University). Herberstein's work was considered of such value that for many decades to come, travellers to Russia were strongly advised to read it before travelling, as was the case with the English poet George Turberville. "In one of his letters from Russia during the mission of 1568-69, headed by Thomas Randolph, Turberville advised his friends never to venture to this barbarous land and, to stress his point, referred them to Herberstein's Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii: "To Sigismundus' book repair, who all the truth can tell." To the present day no serious study of Muscovy can be undertaken without reading Herberstein." This 1600 edition is largely based on the 1556 Basel edition, which displayed significant changes in quality of content and of illustrations from the previous ones. It incorporates an important and useful illustration: three fine maps, along with elaborate woodcuts showing the Grand Duke (Tsar Vasilii III), Muscovites, bisons, aurochs etc. The map of Moscow is the first printed plan of the city, probably drawn by Herberstein himself, who was not a cartographer but here reveals a commendable talent as a draughtsman. This woodcut became very famous, in particular through the use by Braun & Hogenberg. This edition includes a number of other works describing the Grand Duchy of Moscovy, including Paulo Giovio's De Legatione Basilii magni Principis Moschoviae ad Clementem VII; Tilmann Bredenbach's Historia belli Livonici; Paul Oderborn's scarce Ionannis Basilidis magni Moscoviae ducis vita; and Reinhold Heidenstein's De Bello Moschovitico commentarium. Provenance: Bigot de la Turgère (arms to spine); Lyon Jesuit stamp to title. Physical description:Folio (35.5 x 22.5 cm). Letterpress title with woodcut printer's device, [11] ll. preliminaries incl. a full page woodcut of Tsar Vasilii III with text to verso, 445 pp. incl. two genealogical tables, the last one folding, and [28] ll. index with one full-page armorial woodcut, with 3 double-page woocut maps and 5 full-page woodcuts in text, ornamented head pieces and multi-line initials. Contemporary brown calf, gilt fillets to covers, spine with raised bands, gilt lettering to a compartments, gilt coat of arms to others, red edges. Condition:Binding rubbed and scratched, joints anciently repaired and this repair now lifting, top of spine also anciently repaired with small part of gilding missing; some browning throughout, sometimes stronger, incl. on one of the maps, light marginal waterstain to a few leaves, minor small marginal worming to a few leaves towards end, repaired. Bibliography:Adelung 9 (with an incomplete list of "these valuable collections"); VD 16, M 1038 (under Marne); Ulianinskii 3977 (with list of works included and approximate collation); for Bigot: Guigard, Armorial du Bibliophile, pp. 95 ff.
More from PY Rare Books
![Ezhednevnyia zapiski v Londone [A Daily London Notebook]](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/31936673019-600x866.jpg)
Ezhednevnyia zapiski v Londone [A Daily London Notebook]
SVININ, Pavel Petrovich The first Russian book on the UK and its capital, and the start of Russian anglomania --- First edition of these rich and entertaining notes, including great comments on Londoners (vs Parisians especially!). Rare: Apparently only one copy in the UK (British Library). WorldCat locates 5 other copies:NYPL (incomplete), Columbia, Cornell, Berkeley, and Library of Congress but the latter is in fact a photocopy 'made by the British Museum from another issue of the same year'. Interestingly, the title-page in the British Library copy is a completely different (later?) setting, with a quotation from Rousseau rather than Chateaubriand. We could also locate three holdings in Russian libraries, and only two copies at Western auctions in recent decades. Artist, collector, writer, an acquaintance of Pushkin and Gogol and the founder and editor of the famous journal Otechestvennye zapiski [Fatherland Notes], Svinin (17871839) published the present account of London life in the wake of his earlier Sketches of Moscow and St Petersburg (Philadelphia,1813; his first book), and Opyt zhivopisnago puteshestviia po Severnoi Amerike ('A picturesque voyage across North America: an essay', St Petersburg, 1815). A member of the first Russian diplomatic mission to the US (1811-13), Svinin is considered "one of the best known and most influential observers of life in the United States" (Bolkhovitinov, our translation here and below) for his work about America. In the summer of 1813, Svinin served at the headquarters of the Russian army in Germany and was repeatedly sent to London with dispatches. One of his tasks was to deliver a pension from tsar Aleksandr I to the widow of General Moreau, Napoleon's main rival, whom Svinin met in America. Svinin's observations of London during this trip begin, as a sort of introduction with separate pagination, with amusing comparisons between London and Paris. He then focuses on various elements of the city (such as post offices and roads), with chapters on the Congreve rockets at Woolwich, Greenwich Hospital, the astronomer William Herschel, the British Museum (and its Library: 'the best in Europe'), London's theatres, Newgate Prison, Kew and Windsor. The final chapter offers an account of Aleksandr I's visit in 1814. Among a great variety of subject matters, Svinin pays also attention to the "strangeness of English morality": "I observe also that the very laws of England and the charitable institutions give some excuse for the debauchery of the girls. Nothing can be stranger and more unjust than the law on this subject, which is very strictly enforced in England and America! A girl's oath is preferable to all man's oaths and is more respected, therefore, if a girl swears on the Gospel that so-and-so caused her pregnancy, regardless of all denials and arguments, he must either marry her or provide a known sum for raising the child". He also discusses theft issues on the streets: "The beggars in London constitute a class of artisans unknown anywhere else, for sanctimony here is not a sign of poverty, but a kind of industry [.] The swindlers have their own Academy in this quarter, where young candidates are trained - to unload other people's pockets, according to some systematic rules". This is the first extensive Russian work about London, and the UK in general, and the first Russian book focusing exclusively on the subject. The only works published before Svinin's observations were parts of larger travel accounts, and were few. The first may well be Nikita Demidov's Zhurnal puteshestviia. [Diary of a Travel.] in 1786 with only about 25 pp. on London and parts of the UK; then came Nikolai Karamzin's Pisma russkogo puteshestvennika [Letters of a Russian Traveller] (Moskovskii zhurnal [Moscow Journal], 1791-92), which included notes about England. His "Puteshestvie v London" ["Trip to London"] an additional fragment from The Letters was then published in his almanack Aglaia in 1794. And lastly Petr Makarov's article "Rossiianin v Londone, ili pisma k druziam moim" ["A Russian in London, or Letters to my Friends"] was included in Karamzin's Vestnik Evropy [Messenger of Europe] in 1804. Several fragments of Svinin's work were published in Syn Otechestva [Son of the Fatherland] magazine in 1815. This complete edition of 1817 was followed by multiple other travel accounts of England as the 1820s saw a new surge of anglomania among the nobility: "the aristocrats were fascinated by the English language and literature, borrowed the principles of the household, and most of all admired the polity of the distant island country" (Grigorieva). Provenance: Duke Vsevolod Dolgorukii (ownership inscription to lower pastedown; most likely Vsevolod Alekseevich Dolgorukii (also Dolgorukov, 1845-1912) - writer and publisher, author of a celebrated travel guide to Siberia (1895). Without substantial financial means, Dolgorukov was involved in various small scams individually and as part of The Jack of Hearts Club (that mainly consisted of Russian nobility). He was imprisoned several times and eventually was exiled to Tomsk. There he resumed his literary work and was an editor of a number of magazines and actively published in Tomsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg periodicals) Physical description:Duodecimo (16.6 × 10.6 cm) in half-sheets. Title, dedication leaf, t.o.c. leaf, V and 249 pp. Contemporary half roan over marbled boards, flat spine with gilt lettering and gilt fleurons in compartments. Condition:Binding a bit worn but solid, extremities rubbed, corners bumped, free endpapers sometime removed, scribbles to pastedowns and final blank page; old waterstain to lower portion of the text block, some marginal staining to lower corner of the first 60 pages or so, occasional finger-soiling in places. Bibliography:Sm.-Sok. I, p. 424 (added by the editor) but absent from his collection. Bolkhovitinov N. N., "Obraz Ameriki v Rossii" // Amerikanskaia tsivilizatsiia kak istoricheskii fenomen. Vospriiat- $6,295
- $6,295
Nikolai Palkin. Rabotnik Emelian i pustoi baraban. Dorogo Stoit [BOUND WITH:] Shest let v dome grafa Lva Nikolaievicha Tolstogo [AND WITH:] Assiriiskii tsar Assarkhadon. Tri voprosa [Nikolai “The Beater”. Emelian the Worker and the Empty Drum. Too Dear! [BOUND WITH:] Six Years at the Household of the Count Tolstoy [BOUND WITH:] The Assyrian King Assarkhadon. Three questions]
Tolstoy's life and thoughts: a gathering of scarce pamphlets --- Lovely Sammelband of works by and about Tolstoy, most in first Russian editions, including one illustrated by Nadezhda Zhivago. The first pamphlet was forbidden in Russia, like many editions of 'Nikolai Palkin', an anti-militarist novella about punishments and torture in the army under Nicholas I and Alexander II. The story is based on the eye-witnessing account of a 95-year-old soldier, whom Tolstoy met in 1886. The work remained banned in tsarist Russian even after the censorship was lifted in 1905, and it came out in Petrograd only in 1917. 'Nikolai Palkin' is here published together with 'Emilian the Worker' and 'Too Dear!', two variations of Tolstoy on previous texts: the first, written in 1886, is a take on the folk take 'An Empty Drum' published by Sadovnikov in 1884; the second is a rendition of Maupassant's "Sur l'eau" (1888). Both 'Nikolai Palkin' and 'Emilian the Worker' were published first outside Russia, by Elpidine in Geneva, both in 1891. Sophia Tolstoy tried to include 'Emilian' in Tolstoy's collected works in 1892, but the censors cut it out from the proofs. Eventually, it came out in Russia in a censored form in a 1892 collection published as part of famine relief. Then it came out in this, uncensored, edition by Chertkov; it appeared in Russia as uncensored in 1906, published by Posrednik. 'Too Dearl', a satire on capital punishment, appears here for very first time, with Chertkov's slight deviations from Tolstoy's manuscript. In Russia it was published for the first time, in this version, in 1901, by Kliukin ("Dorogo stoit" i drugiie rasskazy), and then, with even more deviations, in the 12th Collected Works in 1911 (see Notes to Vol. 27 of Tolstoy's Collected Works in 90 volumes, Moskva, 1936, p.680). The volume includes also the first edition in the original Russian of two tales by Tolstoy, 'The Assyrian King Assarkhadon' and 'Three questions', both written in 1903. The first text was inspired by an anonymous tale 'Das bist du', published in the German periodical 'Theosophischer Wegweiser' (1903, 5). Tolstoy started writing 'The Three Questions' in competition with Leskov in 1887. The main idea was to write a parable about the three following questions: which time is the best for doing things, which people are the best to spend time with, and what activity is the best to do. Tolstoy's first variant of the story, titled 'Mudraia devitsa' ['The Wise Girl'], appeared in his collection 'Tsvetnik' (Kiev, 1888). This new version however was finished much later, on 9 August 1903. On 20 August Tolstoy sent 'The Assyrian King Assarkhadon' and 'Three questions' to Sholem Aleichem for publication, in a Yiddish translation, in the collection 'Gilph' (Warsaw, 1903), in aid of victims of Kishinev pogroms. Tolstoy's publishing company, Posrednik', produced the original Russian slightly later, to allow time for the charity edition. A the third tale, 'Trud, smert i bolesn' ['Labour, Death and Illness'] was banned by the Russian censors. This edition is attractively illustrated by Nadezhda Ivanovna Zhivago (1875-after 1930), an artist, translator, and children's author. An aristocrat by birth, she studied under Leonid Pasternak and worked for the publisher Sytin. She emigrated after the revolution, and from 1923 lived in the USA, working as a translator at the International Institute in Los Angeles. The fact that she is the namesake of the protagonist of 'Doktor Zhivago' is a coincidence: in a conversation with Varlam Shalamov, Leonid's son Boris Pasternak said that he chose the name as it was popular in Siberia, and also because the word "zhivago" in a Russian Orthodox prayer means "living [God]" (Shalamov V. Sobraniie sochinenii. V. 4. Moskva, 2005). Both pamphlets by Tolstoy are separated in this volume by the first edition in Russian of Anna Seuron's account of her life as a governess of Tolstoy's daughters. This is a translation by S. Sergiievskii of the original German, published the same year in Berlin by S. Cronbach. Provenance: Sir Isaac Shoenberg (1880-1963, a British electronic engineer of Belarus descent best known for his contribution to the development of the first fully electronic television system); by descent, the scholar Peter Gatrell and his wife Jane; acquired directly from their estate. Physical description:Six works in three publications, bound together in one volume 8vo (20 x 14 cm; Palkin smaller: block 18.5 x 11.5 cm). Palkin: 29 pp. inc. title, [3] pp. publisher's announcements and catalogue; Shest let: half-title, title, frontispiece with portrait of Tolstoy, 106, [2] pp. t.o.c.; Assarkhadon: 30 inc. title and leaf with ill., [1] p. ill., with 7 full-page illustrations in text by Zhivago. Later straight-grained brown morocco spine over burgundy cloth, spine with raised bands without lettering, third work with printed lower wrapper bound in. Condition:Spine very lightly sunned; except a couple of marginal spots to a few leaves of second work, very clean and fresh, third work with light trace of horizontal fold. Bibliography:Svod. Kat. russk. nelegalnoi i zapreshchennoi pechati XIX veka 2045 for the first publication. Sionskie protokoly [The Protocols of Zion]
[GORCHAKOV, M.K., Prince (publisher)] One of the most famous and enduring conspiracy theories --- Important émigré edition of the most notorious of anti-semitic slanders, famous for its visual cover. "The Protocols" is an anti-semitic hoax purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, later translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. The text purports to document the minutes of a late 19th-c. meeting of Jewish leaders discussing their goal of global Jewish hegemony by subverting the morals of "gentiles", and by controlling the press and the world's economies. Following the October Revolution, the Protocols of Zion came to be seen in a new light by the Russian right. Viewed through the prism of their anti-semitic beliefs, the predominantly Jewish make-up of the new Bolshevik government appeared to provide material proof of the prophecies that the text had purportedly first revealed. In order to make those links explicit, this émigré edition uses as its cover a photograph of some Soviet officials titled "The Jewish Government in Russia" (without neither Stalin nor Lenin - although some other anti-semitic works claimed Lenin was also Jewish!). The text of the 24 protocols comes from Nilus' 1911 edition, with addition of an extensive introduction by the publisher, Duke Mikhail Gorchakov. Books on Jewish and Masonic conspiracies abounded during the early years of Russian emigration, finding fertile ground amongst the more reactionary elements of the community. In reality, these works tend to reveal rather less about the given subject matter than they do about the émigré community's own attempts to make sense of their own unhappy fate. In 1930s it was proved that the source material for the forged text consisted jointly of "Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu", an 1864 political satire by Maurice Joly and a chapter from "Biarritz", an 1868 novel by the anti-semitic German novelist Hermann Goedsche. Provenance: Physical description:Octavo (23.5 x 16.2 cm). 64 pp. incl. title page. Original publisher's upper wrapper including a photogravure bound in near contemporary green cloth. Condition:Cloth warped, wrapper with ownership inscription in Cyrillic dated march (19)43; some creasing throughout, occasional minor staining and marginal pencil marks, last page with blue pencil crossing. Bibliography: Oriental and Western Siberia: A narrative of seven years’ explorations and adventures in Siberia, Mongolia, the Kirghis Steppes, Chinese Tartary, and part of Central Asia
ATKINSON, Thomas William 'South to the Great Steppe' - with his wife --- First edition of this adventurous tour made in 1849-56, important for Central Asia, Mongolia, but also nowadays Kazakhstan as Nick Fielding showed in his recent book 'South to the Great Steppe". The map is especially remarkable. Atkinson, English traveller and painter, was inspired by Alexander von Humboldt to travel through Russia and Central Asia in 1845. A year later he journeyed to Siberia and on through the Kirghiz-Kazakh steppe - together with his wife Lucy, who was as adventurous a traveller as him. Their narrative describes many fascinating details, including their communications with Kazakh people and their stay with the Khalka Mongols and the crossing of the Mongolian plains. Provenance: From the estate of Geoffrey Elliott (1939-2021), banker of Russian descent, author of books on 20th-c. history. Geoffrey and his wife Fay were noted collectors, especially of Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh and other literary figures. Russia was also an important theme: Geoffrey's grandparents were interned in a Siberian tsarist prison camp before the October Revolution, and he focused most of his published works on the Cold War. The Elliotts donated a significant part of their collection to the library of Leeds University in 2002, but kept the Russia-related items, which we consequently acquired. Physical description:Octavo. viii, [4], 611, [2] pp.; one flarge olding map, 20 hand-coloured lithographed plates, 35 illustrations in text. Original green blind-stamped cloth gilt. Condition:Cloth minimally rubbed, bright; occasional light foxing, a closed tear to the folding plate, otherwise rather clean, an attractive copy. Bibliography: Eléments de la langue géorgienne
BROSSET, Marie-Félicité (Jeune) Extensive, scholarly, and with Imeretian dialect --- First edition of this important Georgian grammar - a lovely example, uncut in the original blue wrappers, complete with two folding plates. The French orientalist Marie-Félicité Brosset (1802-80) "laid the foundation of Georgian (and Armenian) philology. [.] Brosset had practical command of both Georgian and Armenian and contributed to the spread of the knowledge of these cultures in Western Europe in the fields of both philology and history" (Hewitt). When in France, he faced a shortage of materials on the Georgian language and obtained permission from the French government to continue his exploration in Georgia and Russia where he arrived in 1837. He obtained an assistant professorship for Armenian and Georgian literature at the Imperial Academy of Saint Petersburg, notably publishing there in 1849 a history of Georgia entirely in Georgian. Brosset also became State Councillor and Curator of Oriental Coins at the Hermitage. In 1835, the Société Asiatique commissioned Brosset to finish up the Georgian grammar by the German linguist and ethnographer Julius Klaproth (1783-1835) who had just died. Klaproth intended to base "his work on the seventeenth-century list of 3,084 entries published in 1629 in Rome by the missionaries Stefano Paolini and Niceforo Irbach" (Hewitt). However since Brosset had a better command of the language and had other philological views, he changed the plan of the work, and the already typed part by Klaproth was supplied with his own comments and a list of corrected errors. The resulting Éléments de la langue géorgienne was published two years later and became "the third Georgian language manual published in the West" (Iodko). At the time, the work was a real tour de force, given the growing interest in the Caucasus and almost total absence of Georgian speakers in the West. The Éléments can be considered as a much more advanced and multisided continuation of Brosset's earlier work, L'art libéral ou Grammaire géorgienne, published as a manuscript lithographically in Paris in 1834. The present work starts with a long "Tableau raisonné de la littérature georgienne" structured in thematic sections with the author's comments, including a list of works and magazine articles on Georgia, "aux personnes qui penseraient que les ressources sont peu abondantes pour l'étude de la langue géorgienne, ou que cette littérature n'est pas assez riche pour payer leurs efforts" (Brosset). The lower wrapper actually lists four available works about Georgian literature and language, including Klaproth's Vocabulaire and three works by Brosset. The following section gives attention both to the literary alphabet, "ecclesiastique", mainly present in religious texts, and to the so-called "vulgaire" for everyday communications. Each part of speech is thoroughly explained and presented in useful vocabulary units, even including one for interjections, in which readers can learn how to say "ew", "Oh! Oh! Oh!", or to call a cat, dog and chicken among others. At the end of his work Brosset includes a series of reading exercises with literal and proper translations of general and idiomatic expressions and different types of alphabets, dialects and styles of writing. Two folding plates display two Georgian alphabets and a list of abbreviations. This edition was reprinted in 1974 by Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück. Provenance: Physical description:Large 8vo (24 x 16 cm). Half-title, title, LVI and 365 pp., erratum leaf, with two folding plates. Partly unopened in original publisher's blue printed wrappers. Condition:Wrappers minimally rubbed or soiled, lower cover a tiny bit more worn; crisp internally, with only minor occasional foxing, a handful of leaves almost loose or detached. Bibliography:George Hewitt, "The Russian Imperial Academy and Western Transcaucasia (late-eighteenth century to the 1850s)", material from the conference Research and Identity: non-Russian Peoples in the Russian Empire, 1800-1855, Kymenlaakso Summer University (Finland), June 2006; Iodko O. V., "Akademiku Mari-Felisite Brosse 190 let" // Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie: Almanakh, Vyp. 5, 1994, pp. 451-484. [Sinodik]
[OLD BELIEVERS] More than 120 full-page watercolours for some great edifying stories --- An extensive manuscript of moral and religious, often unconventional stories about afterlife miracles and interactions with the dead, impressive for the sheer quantity of full-page watercolours - and the very limited text, often being just two lines per page to briefly comment the illustration opposite. Initially intended as a guidance for commemorating the deceased during divine services, such works are known in Orthodox Christianity as 'Sinodiks', which in the late 17th century gradually evolved to compendiums of texts concerning the afterlife, such as the significance of remembering the dead, the virtues of repentance, and the fleeting nature of worldly pursuits. The content of these collections was determined by their compilers, who most of the time chose extracts from the Old and New Testaments, lives of saints, and instructive words of Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and other church fathers. Such compilations were created by Old Believers to pass on the main dogmas and principles of their beliefs in a compact and accessible form to the next generations: "First, it instilled moral values in young people and emphasised the importance of faith. And secondly, it fostered a deep connection with ancient Russia" (Medvedeva, our translation). This manuscript opens with the depiction of Genesis, extending to the account of Cain and Abel. It then presents a parable illustrating the afterlife trials of both a righteous and a sinful man, alongside the impact of prayers offered by a priest for the departed soul. Additionally, it explains the fate of the human body and soul on the third, ninth, and fortieth day after death. This particular section, detailing the traditional commemorative days in Orthodox Christianity, draws from the Synaxarion, a compilation of short stories about feasts and saints, and now could be read in liturgies during Meat Saturday, a day dedicated to honouring deceased parents, just over a week before Great Lent. Special emphasis is placed on the theme of charity, as seen on leaf 29 which portrays the noble deeds of Basil of Caesarea (Basil the Great), and on leaf 31 referencing Psalm 40, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor." Other watercolours typically illustrate longer narratives, often unconventional and little known to traditional Orthodox Christianity: one notable story involves depictions of Christ among beggars, even disguising himself as one. Eventually Christ reveals his crucifixion wounds to a doubting man, leading one of the beggars in his company to witness an image of the crucifixion; this person then brings the icon to the church, where it begins to levitate (leaves 33-49). The following illustrations also portray a peculiar tale of a man who one day discovers two dead bodies that miraculously appeared in his home and whose burial Basil of Caesarea later organised. Another story, purportedly recorded by Anastasius of Antioch and depicted on leaves 62-78, recounts the life of a pious man who gave away his possessions to the poor, asked his friend to sell him into slavery, and to distribute the proceeds among beggars. While enslaved, he was seduced by his master's wife and immediately felt ashamed. Determined to punish himself and cleanse his soul, he began beating his head against the wall, startling the seductress to death. Falsely accused of murder, he was imprisoned until the woman revived and confessed her wrongdoing. The man was then released and was given all the property of his master who renounced worldly pursuits and went to the Nitrian mountain, while his wife became a nun. The slave eventually settled in Caesarea and lived there inconspicuously until his death at 99; when he died, a fragrance from his body filled the city. The next leaves 79-108 show an amusing and uncommon portrayal of the mid-15th century Tale of Posadnik Shchil, a Novgorod money lender who became rich and decided to build a church. He received the blessing of the Archbishop, who soon realised that it was a mistake as Shchil was a sinner. Upon Shchil's return to seek consecration for the new church, the Archbishop ordered him to lie in a coffin in the church and undergo a funeral service, during which Shchil died, and his coffin fell into the abyss. The Archbishop then commissioned icon artists to depict Shchil's descent into hell on the walls of the church which was sealed and left unconsecrated. Meanwhile, Shchil's repentant son devoted himself to fasting, vigil, and performing liturgies for 40 days. After this period, an archdeacon visited the church and noticed a miraculous change: Shchil's image on the wall began to ascend from hell, initially revealing his head, and in 40 more days his upper body. Following additional 40 days of prayer, Shchil's image emerged entirely from hell, and his coffin rose from the abyss, signifying the absolution of his sins. The archbishop then performed the funeral service for him and consecrated the church. Unlike most other manuscripts, the current work 'doubles' the miracle by introducing the element of painting Shchil on the wall within the narrative, thereby making the depiction even more fantastical. No less fascinating is the following Tale of a Sinful Mother (leaves 109-125), originally a Byzantine spiritual story attributed to Paul, Bishop of Monemvasia in the second half of the 10th century. After the death of his prodigal mother, a young devout Christian distributed all her wealth to the poor; hoping that she would be spared the torments of hell, he followed the advice of a hermit elder to stand and pray for seven days in a circle drawn by his staff. On the seventh day he saw a reeking swamp where his mother was among other sinners. With his right hand, he pulled her out by the hair and guided her to a clear water font, where she was cleansed of her sins and granted forgiveness. After the miracle, the man's right hand, tainted by the swamp's filth, began Evangelie Iisusa Khrista [Gospels of Jesus Christ]
[BIBLE, Slavonic] - A luxurious gift to the local church --- An object of devotion and luxury: impressive metallic binding with rich ornaments, most likely made in Western Ukraine, which had just become Russian. A fine example, in great condition without restoration and with detailed contemporary provenance. An unusually long hand-written inscription running along the bottom margin of more than 15 pages at the beginning of the book give us much information about its provenance: the luxurious object was donated to a St Nicholas church by Ioan Vetvetskii and his wife Anna, for the remission of sins and in commemoration of their deceased son, Nicholas, in 1796. Vetvetskii mentions in this inscription the small town of Khalaimgorodok (modern-day Horodkivka, Ukraine), located near Berdychiv to the south-west of Kyiv; this territory was ceded to Russia just four years before the inscription, during the Second Partition of Poland (1792), which was followed by the third and final one in 1795. The Vetvetskiis' donation must have been prominent: delicately decorated bindings such as this one were "created by order of sovereigns, major figures of the Church and representatives of the highest aristocracy, as only they could afford it" (Aksenova, our translation here and elsewhere). An object of veneration akin to the holy cross and icons, such a Naprestolnoe Evangelie ('Gospels for the Church Altar') was taken by the clergy for readings during services, and otherwise remained on the altar at all times: this can be witnessed by the slight soiling and fading of the silver on the spine and upper board of this copy. This binding, apparently unsigned and without any hallmark, is a striking example of 18th-c. craftsmanship from the Russian Empire. The upper board boasts five hand-painted porcelain enamel (finift) medallions depicting the Resurrection of Christ and the Four Evangelists. Nicely preserved with their fresh original colours, the medallions were inspired by both Western baroque and mediaeval imagery; the latter is evident in the amusingly stylised depictions of bestial symbols of the Evangelists. The arrangement of the Evangelists, from top left clockwise Matthew, Mark, John, Luke is less common than the usual order in Russian bindings, with "John, who traditionally is always located in the upper left corner, Matthew, Mark, and Luke" (Makarova); it is in a way closer to the arrangement found in Ukrainian bindings: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John (Arendar). Each medallion here is placed within an oval and then rectangular floral frames as parts of a larger intricate composition all along the edges of the upper board. The symmetrical and well-balanced ornaments are reminiscent of classicism which became popular in Russia from the third quarter of the 18th century, yet the influences of baroque art are still dominant. The Resurrection is held within a large monstrance filled with cherubs Catholic decorative elements that Christian Orthodox art acquired in the late 18th century. The so-called kanfarka, or a matte granular surface, softens the backgrounds and allows the decorative elements to come forward. The binding additionally stands out for its elaborate and dynamic high relief composition of the lower board: "the lower covers of Gospel bindings, with few exceptions, had no imagery in Russian religious tradition" (Krushelnitskaia), and "[as opposed to Ukrainians, many] Russian masters [.] left the lower board, spine, and clasps unadorned" (Arendar, quoted by Pavlova). In the centre, Virgin Mary holds the infant Jesus in a sumptuous temple with four columns; above them soars the Holy Spirit as a bird facing down. God the Father, here inscribed as "G[ospo]d Savaov", appears from the clouds over the temple, with two angels on either side. At the lower tier are six prophets: king Solomon as a crowned young man, Aaron, Moses, Habakkuk, Zechariah, and King David, also with a crown. They hold scrolls inscribed with their names in a peculiar, almost naive style: arranged in uneven rows of small dots. Some of the inscriptions spell several words in an unusual, if not erroneous way, such as "prophet" ("prarok" instead of "prorok") and "Davyt" instead of "David". It might be that the engraver of these inscriptions wrote them 'by ear'. Traditionally, a Christian Orthodox iconostasis would show the prophets placed in a long row on either side of Virgin Mary and Jesus, representing the transition of the Church from Moses to Christ. Here the prophets are lined underneath, possibly because of the compositional restrictions of the vertical board; some of them are pointing at Jesus, and some are facing the viewer. The whole composition is placed in an intricate frame, with four protective 'legs' (zhukoviny) incorporated in the frame and rendered as flowers. The spine is also nicely ornate, with images of walls of Jerusalem, cross with a serpent, winged cherubs, chalice, tablets, candles and an uncommon depiction of the sun, moon and star shining over a lamb (?) with a gonfalon. Strongly inspired by Western Catholic and baroque art, the binding was most likely created in Western Ukraine, where the owner inscribed and donated the Moscow-printed book to St Nicholas church. The Gospels themselves were produced by order of Catherine the Great at the Moscow Synodal Printing House, "the main centre for the production of Cyrillic printed books" at that time (Vasilieva). Originally printed in 1766, this luxurious, large-format edition was republished with slight changes multiple times up until the early 19th century. Pages are illustrated with nice floral frames, joined by four headpieces showing annunciation, nativity, epiphany (baptism) and resurrection, and four engraved baroque frontispiece plates at the start of each Gospel. All plates are dated 1766 and credit their authors: engraver Vasilii Ikonnikov after the drawing of student Petr Popov (St Matthew), student Semen Nazarov after student Petr Popov (St Mark), student Aleksei Andreev Preis-courant neuerhaltener, ausgesuchter, bester Chinesischer Thee die zu haben sind in den Magazinen der Kaufmanns Gregorius Marinin, in St. Petersburg
[GASTRONOMY] Chinese tea in Pushkin's Russia --- Very rare commercial broadside advertising, in German and with 'Asian' illustrations, Chinese teas offered in the Russian capital during its "Golden Age", when Pushkin and Gogol were stars of literary gatherings, where such teas were elegantly served. The large (> 50 cm) sheet presents a variety of Chinese teas offered in March 1843 at Gregorii Marinin's two shops, both located on the main street of Saint Petersburg, the celebrated Nevskii prospekt - one being in a prime location, opposite the Kazan cathedral and "next to the sugar and coffee shop" clarifies the text. The poster features 21 kinds of green and black teas listed along with corresponding prices in silver roubles and assignation roubles, both of which were in circulation at the time. They can come in various colourful silk packaging, already prepared in China. As a valuable commodity, tea was sold by weight. A pound (app. 0,4 kg) of a premium grade tea is offered for 15 silver roubles - a price inaccessible for the vast majority of Russians of the time: a monthly salary of a low rank bureaucrat in the 1830s was around 20 roubles. Chinese tea was reserved for the middle and upper classes, while the majority of Russians had to make their own variations of this hot beverage, mostly from the local herbs and dried carrot leaves. The price list is interestingly illustrated with a number of simple but lovely woodcuts featuring scenes with Asian military men and aristocracy. Curiously, many illustrations here, probably copied from travel books of the time, show, in fact, characters from Japan rather than from China. Most of the tea imported into Russia was brought by land from China via Kiakhta and Siberia. Because of the relative geographical proximity of the two Empires, tea in Russia was cheaper than in Europe or America. Since the beginning of the 18th century, this hot beverage was steadily gaining popularity among Russians, and by the 1790s Russia was importing around 600 tons of tea annually; by the 1830s this number grew up to 2300 tons, constituting 4% of all Russia's imports. Being in German, this broadside was aimed at the important German-speaking community of St. Petersburg. In the 1860s the German population there exceeded 50,000 people, with a high concentration of State officials, scientists and professors all relatively wealthy and potential customers of Marinin. The merchant also offers shipping within the empire "mit der grössten Pünktlichkeit" ["with the greatest punctuality"]. This fragile broadside, printed on thin paper, is very rare: we could not trace any other examples in WorldCat or on the market. We could not find much on Marinin either, except another, earlier witness of his efforts to reach the city's German community: a 1837 price list and advertisement in St. Petersburg's largest German-language newspaper, the St. Peterburger Zeitung. Provenance: Physical description:Broadside (53.5 x 41.5 cm), text in German, multiple woodcut illustrations. Condition:Central horizontal fold, minor marginal restorations, a few creases, light foxing in places; in appealing condition considering the fragile paper, which hasn't been laid down. Bibliography:Cf. St. Petersburgische Zeitung für das Jahr 1837, p. 213 (online). Tableaux historiques, chronologiques, geographiques et statistiques de l’Empire de Russie, avec une carte généalogique
WEYDEMEYER, Alexandre de Mapping Russia's history and development for an international audience --- A scarce St.-Petersburg imprint of large format, with many interesting aspects, including an early cartographic representation of the development of the Russian empire: a large, double-page map showing the "progressive conquest of Siberia", up to the Alaska and detailing the northern coast of Russia. The rather luxuriously printed publication intends, in a very didactic way, to familiarise European readers with the history, geography, population, structure and economy of a country that had always seemed to have been a mystery to foreigners. After a brief history of the Russian Empire covering the period from 862, the work shows a genealogical table of the ruling dynasties. In the present example, the letterpressed Romanov's dynasty tree, ending with the name Alexander II, is expanded with manuscript notes of a 19th century reader, who updated it with the names of the spouse of Alexander II and their children. The large double-page tables and maps include a wealth of information on Russian geography, flora, fauna, trade, peoples etc. Of special note are the insets on the Don Cossacks, Georgia, Caucasus and the American colonies. Unusually the work includes a bibliography, mentioning a majority of books in Russian. Uncommon: only one example in the USA (Ohio) according to WorldCat, which lists 11 copies overall. Provenance: Physical description:Folio (50.5 x 37 cm). Title, [3] pp. incl. preface, bibliography and subscribers' list, 16 double page text tables, incl. a hand coloured genealogical table and 3 hand coloured engraved maps. Contemporary half straight-grained green morocco over marbled boards, straight-grained green morocco label to upper cover lettered in gilt. Condition:Binding minimally rubbed otherwise a fine example. Bibliography:Brunet V, 1437; Cat. Russica W-394. Obshchii vid Ialty [General View of Yalta]
MITKIN, Mikhail Yalta's bay on a 1.5m panorama --- A fine, wide panorama of the famous Crimean resort, well preserved and here strikingly presented in full-morocco covers. Rarely found. The large panorama shows an early general view of the coast of Yalta from the Aleksandrovskaia embankment (now Lenin embankment) to the waterfront street of Bulvarnaia (now Roosevelt Street). Covering a territory of over one kilometre, the photo shows the famous resort before the 1927 Crimean earthquake and WWII destroyed most of its original architecture. The photographer managed to capture the commercial, mercantile and religious activity of the city through its buildings, as well as recreation areas, bathhouses, and cafés, only a few of which have survived to this day. Standing out from the rest of the waterfront architecture are the large buildings of the first fashionable hotels in Yalta: "Rossiia," "Tsentralnaia," "Edinbourg," and "Frantsia." Established in the 1870s through the 1880s, these hotels soon became a focal point for the visiting elite, attracting guests with luxurious accommodations similar to those of European hotels. Another important historical landmark is the first cathedral of Yalta, the Church of St. John Chrysostom, here clearly visible on Polikurovskii Hill in the last section of the photograph. Below, along the Aleksandrovskaia embankment, the panorama shows, from left to right: the "house with caryatids," a wooden café, a chapel in memory of the murdered Emperor Alexander II, bathhouses, Baron Petr Vrangel's dacha with its clock tower, Count Mordvinov's tennis park, and a local bazar. Several residential buildings are also visible nearby, on the right side of the photograph. The panorama also shows locals, dock workers, and sailors, as well as yachts, boats, steamboats, and ships, either docked or in the harbour. Signs in different languages are clearly seen on several buildings. Mikhail Mitkin was a noted local photographer and founder of one of the first photography studios in Yalta. He produced a few such panoramas of the southern coast of Crimea, and other views of Crimean cities, as well as of numerous palaces of the Russian nobility. Yalta was granted city status on September 17, 1838, a few decades after Catherine the Great incorporated the Crimean Peninsula into the Russian Empire. In the following years, under the rule of Count Mikhail Vorontsov, the city emerged as an exclusive resort for members of the Russian Royal Family. At the time of this photograph, Yalta became the scene of massive construction projects, further reinforcing the city's reputation as the leading tourist destination of the Russian Empire and a major and fashionable health resort. Provenance: Physical description:Photographic panorama (ca. 20 x 153 cm) made of 6 sections of albumen prints mounted on original card (ca. 31.5 x 162.5 cm), cloth strip to folds, photographer's signature impressed to first and last section. Original dark red full morocco with gilt-lettered title and ornaments to upper cover, blind-stamped ornament to lower cover. Condition:Binding a bit rubbed or scratched, spine extremities lightly frayed; one section slightly detached, lightly age-toned at folds, but overall in very good condition, with contrast still well marked. Bibliography:
