Eine wichtige Quellenedition der russischen Geschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

The observations on Russia made by Erik Palmquist in 1674 are a little known and important source that contains drawings, geographical maps, and city plans with descriptions. All of this makes it an important source for the history of seventeenth-century Russia, providing information on military science, diplomacy, law and order, infrastructure, architecture, technology, industry, and clothing. It is not by chance that such a description was made, since the result of this supposedly ‘diplomatic’ mission was the collection of immense amounts of intelligence on Russia. Kept in the National Archive in Stockholm, the manuscript was translated and published in Russian in 1900; an abbreviated edition was released in 1993. The edition reviewed in this article is the first trilingual version which complies with international academic standards, and thus is suitable for scholarly research. However, we still must wait for a version that will be affordable and have the same format as the original. Moreover, academic commentary on the text, illustrations, and maps has not yet been provided.