FABER, Johann.

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Ad serenissimum principem Ferdinandum Archiducem Austriae, Moscovitarum iuxta mare glaciale religio. Rare first edition of one of the earliest printed accounts of Russia. Faber, a lifelong friend of Erasmus and father confessor to the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, reports the information he gathered during an interview with two Russian diplomats who passed through Tubingen in 1525.The envoys were Ivan Fedorovich Yaroslavskii and Semyen Borisovich Trofimov, who stopped in Tubingen - as guests at Ferdinand's court - on their way back to Russia after a meeting with Charles V in Spain. Their conversation with Faber was conducted through an interpreter, Vasilii Vlas, who revealed a considerable amount of information about the geography of Russia, its cities, government, language, schools, and particularly its religion. "According to Fabri, Russian Orthodoxy is the very embodiment of primitive Christianity and the Russians are pious, God-fearing and devout in the extreme... Fabri hints that not only would Russians make good allies against the Turks and Protestants, they would also be excellent models for Ferdinand's subjects themselves" (Poe, p. 25-6). The archduke, pleased with Faber's book, recommended it for study to Herberstein before his second mission to Russia, and later Faber's work formed the basis of Herberstein's own research.In his review of early modern ethnographical works on Russia, Marshall Poe lists Faber as one of the key authors alongside Contarini, Trakhaniot,

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