Moscoviter wunderbare Historien.

from the Russian imperial library

An exceptionally fine example of a great bibliographical rarity commissioned by Catherine the Great. Wide-margined and handsomely bound in red morocco this copy was from an incredibly small edition and bears the stamp of the library at Tsarskoe Selo on the title page.

Herberstein's Commentarii Rerum Moscoviticarum was first published in Latin in 1549 and quickly became the the most important historical and ethnographical work on early sixteenth century Russia. The work was considered of such value that for many centuries to come, travellers to Russia were strongly advised never to travel without it. The first German edition appeared in 1557 but the first official translation was the 1567 Basel edition by the Basel physician Heinrich Pantaleon.

Catherine II took a great interest in both the history of Russia as well as the publication of books. Having heard of the rarity and importance of Herberstein's account she entrusted the court bookseller Weitbrecht to produce a faithful facsimile of the 1567 Basel edition under the supervision of Hartwig Ludwig Christian Bacmeister.

'The reprint, according to the Empress, was intended to be a perfect copy, or photocopy, of the Basel edition. For this purpose, yellowish paper was specially ordered from Paris, similar to the old German one. The format and number of pages are the same; the drawings, polytype, were copied very carefully. Only the font differs slightly from the previous one, although they used the oldest one the printing house had. To distinguish it from the previous edition, a small double-headed eagle was printed above the title vignette depicting a lion' (Adelung).

The text itself was completed within a year, but following the death of Catherine II, the maps and woodcuts intended for the work were never finished. Only after Weitbrecht's death in 1802 did Lissner, who had inherited the small print run of the unfinished edition, take up the task of completing it, bringing the work to completion in 1804.

WorldCat locates just one institutional holding at BCU Lausanne.

Folio (40 x 24.5 cm); three folding engraved maps, illustrations in text, wide margins; contemporary Russian straight-grain red morocco, raised bands, gilt lettering and decoration in compartments, green morocco label, covers with elaborate gilt borders, edges and turn-ins gilt, blue silk bookmarker, a.e.g, some very minor wear to spine else a fine copy.