J. G. Sparwenfelds Diary of a Journey to Russia 1684-87

The present work is an edition of the Russian travel diary of Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeld (1655-1727), the compiler to be of a large Slavonic-Latin dictionary, Lexicon Slavonicum, which was published only recently. Sparwenfeld's interest in the Russian language and Russian culture began with his journey to Russia in the 1680s. He went there as a member of an embassy, but stayed in Moscow for another two and a half years to study the Russian language and Russian affairs. The diary is written mainly in Swedish and French, but includes a few pages in Italian and a large number of names, terms etc. in Russian, sometimes in the Latin and sometimes in the Cyrillic alphabet. The edition contains, in addition to Sparwenfeld's original text, a translation into English, an extensive commentary, appendices, indexes, a few of Sparwenfeld's own drawings etc. Apart from a fairly detailed account of the journey itself, the diary provides an eye-witness report from Moscow during a very complicated period in Russian history. This period proved to be the final years of the old Russia, before Peter took power into his hands and a new era began.