RUSSIA: Sigismund von Herberstein, Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii,
Vienna, 1549
by Elena Ermolaeva, Eugeneja Eliseeva, Appolinaria Martynenko
Siegmund (Sigismund) Freiherr von Herberstein,
(or Baron Sigismund von Herberstein) (1486–1566)
was a famous Austrian diplomat, writer, historian and
member of the Holy Roman Empire. He is most
known for his extensive writings on the geography,
history and customs of Russia, which were the first
source of knowledge about Russia for the Western
audience.
Herberstein was born in August 23, 1486 in
Vipava, in Western Slovenia, to Leonhard von
Herberstein and Barbara von Lueg, members of a
prominent German-speaking family, which had
resided in Herberstein Castle for nearly 200 years.
Little is known of his early life apart from the fact that
he learned some Slovene, the Slavic language spoken
in the region. This knowledge played a significant role
later in his life. In 1499-1502 he studied philosophy
and law in the University of Vienna, University of
Vienna, where he also belonged to the circle of the
outstanding German humanist Konrad Celtis. In 1506
he entered the army as an officer and served in a
number of campaigns. In 1508 he was knighted by the
The bronze Herberstains bust in Moscow by G. Ponozky
Maximilian I of Habsburg. In 1515 Herberstein began
a long diplomatic career as a member of the Imperial
council, or Parliament. Between 1515 and 1553, he carried out approximately 69 missions abroad,
travelling throughout much of Europe, including Turkey.
The title page of “Rerum Moscovinicarum
Commentarii “ (Italian translation)
He was twice sent to Russia as the Austrian ambassador, in
1517 to negotiate a truce between Russia and Lithuania
and in 1526 to renew a treaty between the two, which had
been signed in 1522. These visits provided him with the
opportunity to study a hitherto largely unknown Russian
society. Herberstein's knowledge of Slovene, acquired in
his youth, allowed him to communicate freely with
Russians, as Slovene and Russian languages are related.
He probably wrote his first account on Russia between
1517 and 1527, but no copy of this account survives. In
1526 he was asked to produce a formal report of his
experiences in Russia, but this report remained in the
archives until he was able to revise and expand it, which
he pprobably did in the 1530s. The result was his major
work written in Latin and entitled Rerum Moscoviticarum
Commentarii, firstly published in 1549 in Vienna. This
work became the main source of knowledge on Russia in
Western Europe. Sigismund Herberstein died in Vienna at
the age of eighty, in full glory. His Commentarii were
translated into many European languages and published
many times all over the world. The Russian National
Library in Saint-Petersburg holds one of the most rare
Latin copies, that of the Basel edition of 1571.
1. Etymologia nominis Russia
1
Russia
unde
nomen
habeat,
variae1
extant2
1. varius, -a, -um: different; 2.
extant: exstant;
opiniones. Sunt enim qui eam a quodam Russo, fratre
seu nepote Lech3, principe Polonorum4, perinde ac si
ipse
5
Rhutenorum5
princeps
fuisset,
nomen
accepisse6 volunt. Alii autem a quodam vetustissimo7
oppido, Russo dicto, non longe a Novuogardia
magna. Quidam vero a fusco8 eius gentis colore.
Plerique nomine mutato a Roxolania Russiam
cognominatam9 esse putant. Verum eorum qui hasce
10 afferunt opiniones, tanquam vero haud consonas,
Mosci refutant, afferentes Rosseiam antiquitus10
appellatam,
quasi
dispersam11,
gentem
seu
disseminatam12: id quod nomen ipsum indicat.
Rosseia etenim, Rhutenorum lingua, disseminatio13,
15 seu dispersio13 interpretatur. Quod verum esse varii
populi incolis etiamnum
provinciae
interiacentes
Russiae
3. Lech: the ancestor of the Poles;
4. Polonii, -orum m.: the Poles;
5. Rutheni, -orum m.: the
Russians;
6. accipio 3M accepi: to obtain
(eam accepisse – ACI); 7.
vetustissimus: very old (gradus
elativus);
8. fuscus, -a, -um: here means
light-brown, there is a popular
etymology for Russus as a
consonant to Russian word rusyj –
with light brown hair;
9. cognomino 1: to give the name;
10. antiqitus, adv.: ab antiquitate;
11. dispersus, -a, -um: scattered;
12. disseminatus, -a, -um:
scattered;
13. disseminatio, -onis, f. =
dispersio, -onis, f.: the scattering
(populi vel exercitus);
permixti et diversae
passim
intermixtae
ac
aperte testantur. Notum est autem
historias sacras legentibus disseminantionis vocabulo
20 etiam Prophetas uti, cum de dispersione populorum
loquuntur. Nec tamen desunt, qui Russorum nomen ex
Graeca, atque adeo ex Chaldaica origine, non
multum dissimili ratione trahant. A fluxu14 nimirum15,
14. fluxus, -us, m. (Ancient Greek,
∙oàj (∙Òoj)) – stream, spray.
15. nimirum – certe.
qui Graecis est ∙oàj [rus]
Comments :
1 Russia – Herberstein uses the term Russia in two senses: as an Eastern Slav territory in the border of
the Old Russian state, and as the Russian state of the late 15th – early 17th centuries.
6 Russo dicto – Staraya Russa (=Old Russia) – city near Lake Ilmen. It is one of the oldest Russian
settlements, first appearing in records from 1167; Novuogardia magna – a Latin transliteration of the
Russian name Novgorod (litterary Oppidum Novum; compare to: Neapolis, Neuchâtel, Nijmegen). It was
first mentioned in 859 in the oldest national annals — the Russian Primary Chronicle.
7 fuscus, -a, -um –light-brown, there is a popular etymology for Russus as a consonant to Russian word
rusyj – with light brown hair.
8 Roxolania, Roxolanes – the ancient name of one of the Sarmatian tribes of Volga Region that lived in
the Black Sea area till the invasion of Huns (IV c. AD).
11 Mosci – in Herberstein’s Commentarii this word is used passim for the designation of the Russian
people; Rosseiam is consonant to the Russian word [rasseiannyj, rosseiannyj] which means dispersed
(dispersus, lat.).
20 Propheta (Ancient Greek, prof»thj from prÒfhmi)
– sc. biblical prophet (in auctoribus
Ecclesiasticis).
22 Chaldaicus, -a, -um (from [khaldei] babylonian Kaldu and Χαλδα‹οι) – the name of people that lived
in the swampy region situated in the mouth of Tigris and Euphrates on the North Western shore of the
Persian Gulf.
Questions and Tasks:
1. Style of which Latin author does the fragment recall?
2. Which form is fuisset and why it is used here?
3. What variants of the words extant, ex Graeca, ex Chaldaica do you find more often in the Classical
Latin texts?
4. Which Latin synonyms to the word prоpheta, -ae, m do you know?
5. How many popular etymologies of the word Russia does Herberstein give in this passage?
2. Novuogardenses: domini et servi
1
Accidit praeterea, ut Annales eorum referunt, dum
Novuogardenses Corsun Graeciae civitatem1 ad
1.civitas, -atis, f. = urbs;
septem perpetuos annos gravi obsidione premerent,
5
interim uxores eorum morae pertaesae2, tum etiam de
2. pertaesus, -a, -um: feeling disgust;
salute ac3 adventu maritorum dubitantes, servis
3. ac: atque;
nuberent. Expugnata tandem civitate, quum4 victores
4. quum = cum;
mariti ex bello reversi, aereas portas superatae urbis
ac magnam quandam campanam, quam ipsi in
cathedrali
10 attulissent:
eorum
servique
Ecclesia
dominos,
vidimus,
secum
quorum
uxores
duxerant, vi repellere conarentur: domini indignitate
rei
commoti, depositis, cuiusdam consilio, armis,
lora et fustes tanquam in mancipia arriperent: quibus
servi territi, inque fugam conversi, loco quodam qui
5. lorum, -i, n.: lash; 11. fustis, -is,
m.: stick;
12. convertere fugam: to put to flight;
15 etiamnum Chloppigrod, hoc est Servorum castrum
dicitur, se reciperent defenderentque. Verum victi
meritis a dominis suppliciis affecti fuere.
Comments:
1 Annales, -um, m. – records year by year of the events in a city, a region or a country; Herberstein had
read the Russian Annales and translated some parts of them in his book.
2 Novuogardia – Novum oppidum, today a city on the North-West of Russia (Veliky Novgorod); one of
the cultural centres of Ancient Russia; Corsun – its ancient name was Chersonesos (Χερσόνησος); an
ancient Greek colony founded around the 6th century BC by settlers
from Heraclea Pontica in the southwestern part of Crimea, which
was then known as Taurica. Its Byzantine Greek name is Χερσών;
Old East Slavic one is Corsun.Today Sevastopol. The grand prince
of the Ancient Russia, Vladimir the Great was christened in Corsun
in the 10th c.
7 aereas portas – one can still see Aereas portas in Novgorod in
Cathedral of Saint Sophia.
9 cathedralus Ecclesia – main orthodox cathedral.
15 Chloppigrod is a Latin transliteration of the Russian name of a
small town-fortress built about the 10th c. by fugitive slaves;
Choloppus vel chlopus means servus, grod – oppidum-castrum. In
fact this story about the fugitive slaves is absent in Russian Annales,
Herberstein took this story from Scythus Logos in Herodotus’
“Historia”, IV, 3-4 and contaminated it with popular Russian stories
about the “Slaves war” in Novgorod. Herberstein could also use
Marcus Junianus Justinus’ “Epitome of the Philippic History of
Pompeius Trogus”, II, 5.
Questions and Tasks:
Herberstein in Russian clothes (Engraving
by A.Khirshfogely)
1. Read an ancient source of Herberstein (Herodotus. “Historia”, IV, 3-4) and compare it to this
passage. What is common and different?
2. What does Chloppigrod mean?
3. Why did “domini Novuogardenses” take only lashes?
4. What variant for fuere do you find more frequently?
Map of Moscovia (source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herberstein-Moscovia.jpg, PD-Art [23.7.2010]