Are
THERE ANY Russian sources of Adam Olearius map?
V. Gurkin
vgrk@mail.ru
It
is known, that Adam Olearius was the author of the first detailed map of the Volga River.
But there are some differences between the description and the map itself.
There are also some mistakes in Olearius' map, which couldn't have the simple
explanation. In particularly, the Swiatski town is located on this map (and in
text) on the left side of the Volga, though in
reality it is on the right side. When we make comparative study of the
Olearius' map with the map of the Volga
River from the album of
Swedish investigator Erick Palmquist, we could see some small distinctions,
which indicate to the common source. It is known, that after his voyage to
Persia Olearius presented his map of the Volga River
to Russian tsar Mikhail Romanov. This map is the same as the map of Palmquist.
But some questions remain. It's interesting, that the map of Palmquist is more
correct in some local names. For example, "Pagantzina" (Olearius) and
"Pantzina" (Palmquist) are actually "Epanchino" ( the old
village near the right bank of the Kama river).
All
these distinctions may be the strong evidence that the Russian prototypes of
this famous map of the Volga
River existed.
Could
Olearius have some Russian land maps in his voyage? It's possible. Many
manuscript maps existed in Moscow
state at that time but large part of them were destroyed in the following
times. The map of Olearius was published in many copies and so remained, but
his manuscript maps also were lost.