Our Notes & References

First German edition of this important encyclopaedia on the flourishing trade over the Black Sea, with much supplementary, up-to-date material added by the translator.

Very rare: WorldCat locates copies in Germany only, apparently none in Northern America; we could add one copy in St. Petersburg (RNB). No copy traced at auction in recent decades.

A great example: fresh, uncut, and attractively bound in signed blue morocco with fine bibliophilic provenance related to the work’s subject matter.

Claude-Charles de Peyssonel (sometimes Peyssonnel; 1727–90) was French consul to Crimea, Crete and Smyrna, with a view to expand French presence and business in these regions. “A la fois un homme de beaucoup d’esprit et d’érudution” (Larousse), he gathered much material during his travels, before being interrupted by the Russo-Turkish war and relocating to France. He published there a few works on the region and the relationships between Russia, Turkey and Europe: his main work is considered now to be this Traité sur le commerce de la Mer Noire.

The book gives a lively and very detailed account of his observations. A particular attention is given to the various products traded, including arms, tobacco, tea, fish and caviar, wine, salt, slaves, etc., with comprehensive descriptions and tables covering all aspects, from their production to their price, including their packing and transport, detailing also the incoming and outgoing flows city by city, or by region. The author progressively extends his observations to the neighbouring countries of Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania (Valachia) and Moldavia among others. It also includes rich cultural and social observations on the ‘Petite Tartarie’, ie. the Ukraine, and especially on Crimea and its Tatars.

A German librarian, historian and employee of the Department of External Affairs in Berlin, Ernst Wilhelm Cuhn (1756–1809) answered a need for information in Prussia and German-speaking countries, as he published his translation just a year after the original Paris edition (1787). It is worth noting that, compared to that first edition, Cuhn added a 30-pp. long introduction focusing on the geopolitical history of the European, Russian and Ottoman powers; he also added 100 pp. of supplements at the end, including a wealth of notes taking into consideration recent trade agreements between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and showing extensive trade date between the two for 1786. His geopolitical interest also brings him to comment on France’s relationship with Turkey, mentioning some trade data here too (incl. for Burgundy wine and Champagne). Finally he added a 40-pp. text with much material on the trade of Smyrna and Crete.

Provenance

Ivan Iraklievich Kuris (gilt arms to covers with motto ‘Da budet pravda’ [There will be truth]). Of Greek origin, Kuris (1841–98) was a high-ranked Russian official in the southern parts of nowadays Ukraine. He graduated from the prestigious Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa, and then made a successful political career on the shores of the Black Sea.

Kuris became a major bibliophile and art collector. He gathered many antiquities from the local ancient Bosporan Kingdom, and also formed an impressive library of about 20,000 books and manuscripts. He liked to have his books bound by high-quality European binders, often applying his gilt arms. His library suffered from the revolution in 1917, but a “significant part” of his collections (Druzhinin) could be taken by his widow and family when they emigrated to Paris in 1920.

Bibliography

Cat. Russica. P-484; Druzhinin A., Russkii Geraldicheskii Superekslibris, Svodnii katalog, Moskva, 2000. p. 105; second edition, Moskva, 2014. pp. 92–95. (ours is variant III in both); Larousse, Pierre, Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, vol. 12, 1866.