russia, mongolia, chinaby baddeley, john f

Russia, Mongolia, China by Baddeley, John F.Review by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 4, No. 1 (May, 1921), pp. 85-88Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/224107 .

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Baddeley, John F. - Russia, Mongolia, China, being some record of the relations between them from the beginning of the xvnth

century to the death of the Tsar ALEXEI MIKHAILOVICH (A.D. 1602-

1676). Rendered mainly in the form of Narratives dictated or written by the Envoys sent by the Russian Tsars, or their Voevo- das in Siberia to the Kalmuk and Mongol Khans and Princes; and to the Emperors of China. With introductions, historical and

geographical also a series of maps showing the progress of geographical knowledge in regard to Northern Asia during the xvith, xvnIth and early xviith centuries, the texts taken more especially from manuscripts in the Moscow Foreign Office Archives, 2 vol. in folio, 16 + CCCLXVI p., 22 maps and 3 plates printed separately, illustr. in text and genealogical tables; xi- + 448 p., 3 pi. and 5 maps printed separately and other illustr. London, MACMIL- LAN, 1919. [Only 250 copies at 12 guineas each.]

This important publication offers us the results of research carried on by Mr. JOHN F. BADDELEY during eight years and it embodies the

experience of many more. It developed in an unusual way. The second volume was written and printed first; it was in type before the

war; the index to both volumes appears at the end of vol. I. This is

simply due to the fact that after having edited the texts which fill the second volume, the editor realized the necessity of adding historical and geographical introductions. These introductions grew as his

enquiries advanced and they make up the greatest part of vol. I. Historians of science will take special interest in the geographical introduction of which I will speak presently.

Volume the second contains the English translation of a series of narratives written or dictated by Russian envoys in Mongolia and China. Most of these narratives have not been published before

except in Russian; some have not even been published in Russian and of these the Russian text is given in vol. I (except in the case of the TUKHACHEVSKY'S Mission, 1634-1635, the Russian text of which was

mislaid by the editor). The earliest text published, relating to an

expedition to and beyond the Yenesei in 1602-1609, no longer exists in Russian and is known only through a Dutch translation by ISAAC MASSA published by HESSEL GERRITZOON, Amsterdam, 1612, together with other information, in a small volume entitled : Beschrij- vinghe vandezr Samoyeden Landt in Tartarien (1)... Many other

(i) Speaking of this book, Mr. BADDELEY says (vol. II, p. 1) " that no other ever

presented in so small a space so much new, varied and important geographical information. ,,

REVIEWS 85



seventeenth century texts are published in full - too many to be quoted here, all the necessary elucidations being given in the foot- notes or in appendixes. These texts will help to explain the history of Russian expansiou in the East, and also the development of our geographical and ethnographic knowledge of Northern Asia.

In the historical introduction (96 p.) an endeavour is made to explain the development of N. Asia from the earliest times down to the beginning of the seventeenth century. This history is divided into three

parts: Before the Mongol Invasion; The invasion; After the Invasion.

Special chapters are devoted to: Mongols and Kalmuks; VASILI II to

YERMAK, with notices of HERBERSTEIN, MENDEZ PINTO and JENKINSON;

YERMAK (d. 1585); Lamaism; The State of Affairs in N. Asia c. A. D. 1600. Two interesting notes complete this historical survey. One is a brief history of the Settlement of Siberia (1586 to 1718), the other deals with sables. Let me quote a few lines of SPATHARY; they attest in a picturesque way to the immense importance which these furs had taken in ancient times (( Now the Sable is a beast full marvellous and prolific, and it is found nowhere else in the world but in Northern Siberia... a merry little beast it is, and a beautiful : and its beauty comes to it with the snow, just as with the snow it disappears. And this is the beast that the ancient Greeks and the Romans called the Golden Fleece ).

For us the most interesting part of the book is the Geographical Introduction (119 p.) which retraces the whole development of our knowledge of N. Asia, special emphasis being laid on the maps. The most important of the ancient maps are minutely described and analyzed, critically compared and splendidly reproduced. One cannot praise Mr. EMERY WALKER too much for these excellent repro- ductions. It is worth while to quote the maps examined by the author.

A first chapter takes us rapidly from the earliest times to the GODU- NOFF map. These earliest maps are not reproduced, but the information which they offer on N. Asia is briefly analysed. After a few short paragraphs devoted to antiquity, the Dark Ages, the Orient and the early relations between South Russia and Siberia (relations clearly proved by the analogies between Siberian and Scythian art), Mr. BAD- DELEY considers successively the following maps:

EDRISI, 1154; MARINO SANUTO, 1320; DULCERT (? DALORTO) 1339; PIZZIGANI, 1367; Catalan Map, 1375; Borgian Map, ca. 1410; LEAR-

DUS, 1442, 1448; FRA MAURO, 1459; BEHAIM, 1492; WALDSEEM[ILLER,

1516; AGNESE, ? 1525; WIED, 1542; HERBERSTEIN, 1546: JENKINSON, 1562; MERCATOR, 1538, 1569; ISAAC MASSA, 1612; GERRITSZOON 1613; SANSON, 1650, 1654. The total result of this analysis (vol. I, p. cxi), is

86 ISIS. IV. 1921



( that practically the whole of the information added to European maps of Middle and Northlern Asia from PTOLEMY to the second half of the seventeenth century, came from EDRISI, MARCO POLO, WIED, HERBER-

STEIN, JENKINSON and MASSA... This information, such as it was, left

all Asia north of the old silk-traders' route and east of the Ob, speaking broadly, as unknown as the reverse of the moon. So that it remained for the Russians in their clumsy, ignorant, rule-of -thumb way, and one zealous Dutchman, NICOLAAS WITSEN, to throw light for the first time

on those vast regions... ? The author now proceeds to examine very carefully the following

maps: 1525 BATTISTA AGNESE. Map of Russia. Reproduced. 1562 JENKINSON. 1570 ABRAHAM ORTELIUS, Tartariae sive Magni Chami regni typus

(in Theatrum Orbis Terrarum). Reproduced. 1657 JAN JANSSON. Tartaria sive Magni Chami Imperium (in Atlas

Novus..., Amsterdam). Reproduced. 1667 The GODUNOFF Map. The original being lost, it is only

known through different copies. A copy made by the Swedish envoy to Russia, FRITZ CRONMAN (or KRONEMAN) in

1669, is reproduced; a Russian version of 1672 (?) and another Swedish version of 1674 are also reproduced and discussed

1673 Ethnographical Map of Northern Asia (REMEZOFF Atlas, sheet no. 23/25). Reproduced.

1690-1693 SCHLEISSING'S Map. Another version of the GODUNOFF map of little value. Reproduced.

1692 Le R. P. AVRIL. Nouvelle carte de la Siberie et du Kitay ... tiree de l'original de la chancellerie de Moscou. Repro- duced and discussed in vol. II, p. 215 sq.

1687 NICOLAES CORNELISZOON WITSEN (1641-1717). This map is

discussed and compared with that of STRAHLENBERG (1730) and with modern maps (see synthetic sketch map). ( On the whole, WITSEN'S map, with all its shortcomings, marks the most important addition ever made at one time to the

cartographical knowledge of Northern Asia. )) 1696-1701 The REMEZOFF maps. (The original atlas, manuscript, is in

the RUMIANTSEFF Museum, Moscow. It was reproduced

imperfectly in 1882, by the Imp. Archmeological Commission. The ethnographical map of 1573 quoted above, is a part of that atlas). Three more REMEZOFF maps are here reproduced: Map of all the waterless and difficult country of the mountain steppe; The EKATERINHOF-palace Wall Map of N. Asia; Map of the Yakutsk Town-Territories.

87 REVIEWS



Bef. 1733 The RENAT maps (two reproduced in fac-simile, with key maps).

1836 Sungaria, excerpt from KLAPROTH map. 1862 Sungaria, excerpt from the Kien-Lung Jesuit map. 1760 Sungaria, excerpt from the Kien-Lung Jesuit map. 1724 Sungaria, UNKOVSKY'S map (with key map).

Among the appendixes to vol. I, I should mention a bibliography of the subject (MSS. and printed books, Russian and Non-Russian) and genealogical tables of Mongol and Kalmuk princes. Among the notes of vol. II, the two most interesting perhaps are one devoted to the traveller and adventurer NIKOLAI GAVRILOVICH SPATHARY (1625 or

1635-1708) - the records of his travels and residences in N. Asia fill more space (vol. 11, p. 204-422) than all the other records here published; - and another devoted to the great personality of Father FERDI-

NAND VERBIEST, S. J. By the way, Mr. BADDELEY seems to be unacquain- ted with the biographies of him given in 1912 and 1913 by H. BOSMANs, and in 1913 by A. DAMRY, also by L. VAN HEE ('). Other studies may have appeared apropos of the inauguration of VERBIEST'S statue in his native place Pitthem, W. Flanders in 1913 (2). On the other hand, I draw the attention of VERBIEST'S biographers to the new information on his life derived from Russian sources, which is contained in Mr. BADDELEY'S book.

It is to be deprecated that only 250 copies of this important book have been published. Such a small edition would not even be sufficient to enable each large library of the world to obtain a copy. Much as I love beautiful books, I have no sympathy for that collector's aberra- tion which prompts them to publish limited editions to increase artificially the number of rarities. It is as if they could only enjoy a thing to the extent that others were deprived of it. Their selfishness debases the love of letters and beauty into greed and speculation. Most of the books published in small editions by collectors are so unimportant that their scarcity does not matter, but when a work as fundamental as Mr. BADDELEY'S is dealt with in the same way, there is good reason to be anxious and sad (3).

GEORGE SARTON.

(l) Seelsis, I, 159, 551, 765; II, 268; iv, 146.

(2) See Isis, I, 705. The German invaders reaching that little village in 1914, must have been not a little surprised to be suddenly confronted with a Chinese mandarin !

(3) Mr. JOHN F. BADDELEY published previously: The Russian Conquest of the Cau- casus, xxxviii + 518 p., London, LONOMANS, GREEN & Co., 1908, and another book of his has just appeared : Russia in the Eighties, Sport and politics, xvi + 467 p. Lon-

don, LONGMANS, 1921.

88 ISIS. IV. 1921



russia, mongolia, chinaby baddeley, john f

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