Notes upon Russia: Being a Translation of the earliest Account of that Country, entitled Rerum Muscoviticarum commentarii, by the Baron Sigismund von Herberstein by R.H. Major

Author:R.H. Major [Major, R.H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317086529
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

1 Nicholas of Bari.

RERVM MOSCO-VITICARVM CO-MENTARII.

IN HIIS COMKNTARIIS SPARSIM CONTENTA HABEBIS, CANDIDE LECTOR,

RUSSIE & QUE NUNC EJUS METROPOLIS EST, MOSCOVIE, BREVISSIMAM DESCRIPTIONEM,

DE RELIGIONE QUOQUE VARIA INSERTA SUNT; ET QUE NOSTRA CUM RELIGIONE NON CONVENIUNT.

COROGRAPHIAM DENIQVE TOTIUS IMPERII MOSCICI: ET VICINORUM QUORUNDAM MENTIONEM.

QUIS DENIQUE MODUS EXCIPIENDI ET TRACTANDI ORATORES: DISSERITUR.

ITINERARIA QUOQUE DUO, IN MOSCOVIAM SUNT ADIUNCTA.

DEDICATION.

To the Most Serene Prince and Lord, the Lord Ferdinand, King of the Romans, Hungary, and Bohemia, Infant of Spain, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Wirtemberg, and Duke, Marquis, Count, and Lord of many provinces, my most gracious master:

IN ancient days, when the Romans sent ambassadors to any distant and unknown country, they are said to have charged them as a duty to commit carefully to writing a description of the manners, institutes, and entire mode of living of the people with whom their embassy brought them in contact; and so much importance was afterwards attached to such descriptions, that upon the termination of an embassy, the ambassador’s commentaries were deposited in the temple of Saturn for the instruction of posterity. If this regulation had been observed by men of our own, or recent times, we should perhaps have had more light, and certainly less trash, infused into history. For my own part, as I always from my youth took delight in observing the habits of foreigners both at home and abroad, it was a matter of cordial pleasure to me that my services were required in embassies, not only by that wise prince, Your Majesty’s grandfather Maximilian, but by Your Majesty also, by whose command I more than once travelled through the countries of the north. To Russia in particular, which of all the countries of Christendom differs so much from us in its manners, laws, religion, and military discipline, I made a second expedition, on which occasion the Imperial ambassador, Count Leonhard von Nugaroli was alike the sharer of my dignity and the companion of my journey. Although, however, I had by command of the Emperor Maximilian gone as ambassador to Denmark, Hungary, and Poland; and after the death of His Majesty, had in the name of my country, travelled through Italy and France, traversing both sea and land, to Spain, on a mission to Your Majesty’s brother, the most powerful and invincible Emperor Charles V; and subsequently, by command of Your Majesty, went as ambassador to the kings of Hungary and Poland, and lastly, in company with Count Nicolas von Salm, to the camp of Solyman, the prince of the Turks; in all which journeyings I had made numerous notes, doubtless worthy of being commemorated in print, both of what I saw and learnt by diligent inquiry: yet I was unwilling to spend such leisure as I could afford myself from public councils, in committing to print any relation of such matters as had been either treated of skilfully and carefully by others, or were already set before the eyes and daily observation of all Europe. The more intimate habits of

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