Mayerberg Album

The Mayerberg Album is a collection of drawings and descriptions of the 17th-century Tsardom of Russia, made by Augustin von Mayerberg (also Meyerberg), a German baron (Freiherr), who together with Horatio Gugliemo Clavuccio was sent on an embassy Muscovy by emperor Leopold I in February 1661.

Mayerberg travelled in Muscovy for almost a year, arriving on 25 May (15 May O.S.) and departing on 5 May 1662 (26 April O.S.). He wrote two Latin accounts of the embassy. Mayerberg also supervised the production of numerous drawings, collected in the so-called Mayerberg Album. The drawings primarily by one Johann Rudolf Storn, although Mayerberg also was accompanied by a painter called Puman. The album also includes often extensive annotations of the pictures in German. The original album was kept in the Royal Library in Dresden.

The Mayerberg Album was edited by Friedrich von Adelung in two volumes in 1827 (including engravings based on the drawings). The work was translated into Russian in 1873 by A. N. Shemiakin, as Puteshestvie v Moskoviiu barona Augstiona Maierberga. The first publication of actual facsimiles of the drawings (in black and white) was edited by A. S. Suvorina (1903).

References

Friedrich Adelung, Augustin Freiherr von Meyerberg und seine Reise nach Russland Nebst Einer Von Ihm auf dieser Reise veranstalteten Sammlung von Ansichten, Gebräuchen, Bildnissen u.s.w., St. Petersburg, 1827 (digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de).
Friedrich Adelung, Sammlung Von Ansichten, Gebräuchen, Bildnissen, Trachten U.S.W.: Welche Der Röm. Kaiserl. Gesandte Augustin Freyherr Von Meyerberg Auf Seiner Reise Und Während Seines Aufenthaltes In Russland in den Jahren 1661 und 1662 hat entwerfen lassen, 1827.
A. S. Suvorin (ed.), Al'bom Meierberga. Vidy i bytovye kartiny Rossii XVII veka. Risunki drezdenskogo al'boma, vosproizvedennye s podlinnika v natural'nuiu velichinu, s prilozheniem karty puti tsesarskogo posol'stva 1661-1662 gg. S.-Peterburg, 1903.

External links

The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Drawings of Muscovy from The Mayerberg Album (from the 1903 edition)