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.