![SMYTHE [SMITH], Thomas (c.1558-1625). Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia. London: [J. Roberts and W. Jaggard for] Nathanyell Butter, 1605.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2016/CKS/2016_CKS_12138_0374_000(smythe_smith_thomas_voiage_and_entertainment_in_rushia_london_j_robert071537).jpg?w=1)
Details
SMYTHE [SMITH], Thomas (c.1558-1625). Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia. London: [J. Roberts and W. Jaggard for] Nathanyell Butter, 1605.
4º (197 x 140 mm). Woodcut device on title, with final blank. (Bottom margins of quires A-C restored, title cut slightly short at bottom margin, lightly soiled and with first two and a half words of imprint in pen-and-ink facsimile.) 19th-century mottled calf gilt, sides with double fillet panels and small acorn tool at inner corners, gilt spine with morocco label, gilt edges (spine lightly rubbed, light scuff mark on front cover). Provenance: Sir Henry Hope Edwardes, 10th Baronet (1829-1900: bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. It was probably thanks to his position as a successful London merchant who enjoyed a 'leading role in the Muscovy company's trade to northern Europe' that Sir Thomas Smythe was appointed special ambassador to the tsar of Russia. ODNB notes that 'he landed at Archangel on 22 July. Over the winter he obtained a grant of new privileges for the company, and he sailed for England on 28 May 1605.’ His account relates the 'tragicall end' of Boris Godunov who died 23 April 1605, having reigned from 1598; the Russian use of poison as a political weapon produces an allusion to Hamlet. ESTC locates only 12 copies. Cox I, 189-190: ‘very rare’; STC 22869.
4º (197 x 140 mm). Woodcut device on title, with final blank. (Bottom margins of quires A-C restored, title cut slightly short at bottom margin, lightly soiled and with first two and a half words of imprint in pen-and-ink facsimile.) 19th-century mottled calf gilt, sides with double fillet panels and small acorn tool at inner corners, gilt spine with morocco label, gilt edges (spine lightly rubbed, light scuff mark on front cover). Provenance: Sir Henry Hope Edwardes, 10th Baronet (1829-1900: bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. It was probably thanks to his position as a successful London merchant who enjoyed a 'leading role in the Muscovy company's trade to northern Europe' that Sir Thomas Smythe was appointed special ambassador to the tsar of Russia. ODNB notes that 'he landed at Archangel on 22 July. Over the winter he obtained a grant of new privileges for the company, and he sailed for England on 28 May 1605.’ His account relates the 'tragicall end' of Boris Godunov who died 23 April 1605, having reigned from 1598; the Russian use of poison as a political weapon produces an allusion to Hamlet. ESTC locates only 12 copies. Cox I, 189-190: ‘very rare’; STC 22869.
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