Overview

Full title of the work: An historico-geographical description of the north and eastern parts of Europe and Asia but more particularly of Russia, Siberia, and Great Tartary both in their ancient and modern state, together with an entire new polyglot-table of the dialects of 32 Tartarian nations and a vocabulary of the Kalmuck-Mungalian tongue (Serpent Books Edition). This work was originally written in High German by Philipp Johann von Strahlenberg (also known as Philip Johan and Philip John) and published in Stockholm in 1730. It was translated and published in English in 1738 (translator unknown). The present work is the English translation. Philipp Johann von Strahlenberg (1676-1747) was a Swedish officer who was captured by the Russians after the fateful defeat of the Swedish Army at Poltava in 1709. During his captivity, he was sent to Siberia where he eventually began working as a cartographer, geographer and explorer of Siberia and the Far East. In this work, Strahlenberg's opus magnum, he describes the customs, traditions, and languages of the many peoples then inhabiting Russia's little-known vast hinterland. As a well-read scholar, Strahlenberg also makes many comparisons with the classics of European history (including Greek, Latin and Norse sources). The final result is a remarkable book that can almost be viewed as a prototype for the sciences of linguistics, ethnography, and anthropology which would only emerge a century later. This is a replica of the original (1738) with a new preface by anthropologist Nikolas Århem. The main text is the original English from 1738 but is fully readable today. No folded maps are included in this book. All maps and images from the original are included and the large format (210 mm x 273 mm [8,25x10,75 in]) does them full justice. Larger maps and images have been split into multiple pages allowing them to be appreciated just as in the original.

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9789198940084

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