one of only 250 copies

First edition, limited to 250 numbered copies: a great work of scholarship and a most important, very comprehensive source on early times of Russia and Northern Asia, with a wealth of information - as well as a most handsomely produced book.

The first volume gives a very detailed historical and geographical outline of the regions described, with special emphasis placed on the analysis and critics of the cartography of the region. It includes 28 excellent reproductions of important maps, among them Battista Agnese's map of Russia, Jenkinson's map, the Godunov and the Remezov maps, Schleissing's, Witsen's and Strahlenberg's maps. The second volume focuses on the missions sent by the Tsars to the Mongol Khans, the Kalmuks and the Chinese Emperors in the 17th century. Among the many described are: Petroff's mission to the Kalmuks (1616), Savelieff's mission to the Kalmuks (1617), Tumenet and Petroff, Petlin and Mundoff's missions to China, Tukhachevsky's, Grechanin's, Starkoff's and Nevieroff's missions to the Altin Khan all in the 1630s), Baikoff's mission to China (1653-1675), Bubenny's and Uulvinsky's missions to the Kalmuks (1665/1667), Spathary Embassy to China (1675-1677), etc.

First edition, number 135 of 250 numbered copies; 2 vols, folio (36 x 23 cm); 6 double sheets of genealogical tables, 2 frontispieces and 4 plates, of which 1 folding, 69 in-text illustrations, 29 maps, of which 10 double-page, 2 in-text, 1 folding, 3 partly in colour, with 6 folding and partly colour in pocket at rear of vol. 1; publisher's original holland-backed blue boards, paper labels to spines, top edges gilt, others uncut, some expert restoration to spine cloth, upper hinge of vol. 1 a little tender, a very good copy; 14, [2], ccclxv; xii, 445, [2] pp.