Opisanie starinnykh tsarskikh utvarei, odezh, oruzhiia, ratnykh dospekhov i konskogo pribora, izvlechnnoe iz rukopisei arkhiva moskovskoi oruzhennoi palaty

£2,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

Fresh copy of the uncommon first edition of this encyclopaedia of the Russian Imperial costume. A detailed research on the royal dresses of Russia before Peter the Great, especially during the 17th century, with extensive scholarly remarks and definitions. Finely illustrated, complete first edition; this copy interleaved. Pavel Savvaitov (1815 - 95) was a Russian philologist, historian and member of the Academy of Science. He started conducting research for this major work already in 1858, using ancient manuscripts and archive materials from the Moscow Armoury. In his work Savvaitov explains names of various pieces of cloth, hats, jewellery, armours, arms and horse harness that were in use in XVI – XVII centuries among Russian tsars, tsarinas and nobility. Of particular interest are his detailed descriptions of the clothing and personal effects of Boris Godunov, Mikhail Fedorovich, Aleksey Mikhailovich and Sofia Alekseevna. A second edition was published posthumously only in 1896. Most of the work (ca. 200 pages) consists of an 'index' with extensive explanations of names of, fabrics, household utensils, precious stones, and military equipment, already unknown to Savvaitov's contemporaries. These dictionary explanations are illustrated with quotes from chronicles and other Russian texts from the 16th and 17th centuries; they also include foreign words and characters, such as Persian and Mongolian – something possible thanks to the wide-ranging press of the Imperial Academy of

• Binding: Hardcover

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