Our Notes & References

A rich and important eyewitness account of the Baltic lands, Russia and Siberia in the 17^th century. Its illustration includes a panorama of the Moscow kremlin and possibly the first depictions of amber mining and sable hunting on skis.

Pleasant, complete example of the first edition. Scarce: although copies seem to be available in public institutions, we could trace only another complete copy at auction in recent decades.

In March 1673, Brand (1647-90) joined the embassy sent by the Brandenburg elector Friedrich Wilhelm to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who had asked for Prussian support against the Turks. During his travels from Berlin via Dantzig (Gdańsk in nowadays Poland), Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), Riga, Pskov, Novgorod and Tver to Moscow, Brand wrote detailed observations and many comments and corrections of previous descriptions, especially Olearius’ celebrated Vermehrte Newe Beschreibung, which was then the last updated account of Muscovy.

Brand’s observations are notable for their comprehensiveness and accuracy. All the way from Berlin, he focused on the local cultures and customs (such as Latvian bath-houses or Lithuanian children education), political organisations, geography and, perhaps more unusually, on the languages and music: the edition includes several vocabularies (Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian) and songs in the original language, also translated in German, quoting for example Lithuanian proverbs and drinking songs, and giving “the earliest examples of Latvian dainas [type of folk songs], published for a Western readership” (Kloss). One of the plates represents the blind organist, composer and “philosophus” from Königsberg, Ulrich Schönberger (1601-49).

Brand also included a ‘General Description of Siberia’, a text which he received in manuscript from his compatriot Albrecht Dobbin, who at that time served in Siberia as a captain of the Tsar for 17 years. Dobbin briefly describes Western, Central and Southern Siberia, mentioning Kazan, Astrakhan as well as various peoples of this vast land, such as Kalmyks and even Kirghiz. Brand added his own comments, including a most interesting description of sable hunting, illustrated in details by a folding plate, which may well be its first depiction, or even the first full hunting scene on skis.

Two other plates are of special note: one shows amber extraction on the shores of the Königsberg peninsula – also its first depiction probably, as we could not find such an illustration in previous mining works, especially Agricola’s major opus.

The other remarkable illustration is a larger folding plate depicting an important procession in front of the Moscow Kremlin and St. Basile cathedral, most probably for Palm Sunday, still carried out when Brand visited Moscow, but not anymore when the book was published: such celebrations were indeed forbidden as soon as 1678. Other illustrations include, among others, plans and views of cities such as Königsberg, Gdańsk, Riga, Velikii Novgorod and Tver.

Brand died rather young, and we owe to his friend and colleague Heinrich-Christian von Hennin this “excellent publication that made available a lot of interesting information that otherwise would have been lost” (Kloss). A professor at the Duisburg university, Hennin significantly augmented Brand’s work with his introduction, a funerary oration and extensive, erudite notes, comments, remarks and corrections over c. 150 pages.

Provenance

M.G.B. Scharff. V.D.M (ink inscription to title); A. Leepinsch (small blue ink stamp to title).

Bibliography

Adelung II, 118; Cat. Russica B-1854; Erich Donnert, Alt-Russisches Kulturlexikon, VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1988; Jürgen Kloss, “Exotic” Songs and Tunes in European Publications 1577-1830 (online).