History and culture: The exhibition “Paintings of Old Russian life of the XVII century. By the book of Adam O’Leary “Descriptions of Travel in Muscovy…” in the Vladimir region

September 6, 2014 the Moscow State Integrated Museum-Reserve opens an exhibition project "Pictures of Old Russian life of the XVII century. By the book of Adam O’Leary "Descriptions of Travel in Muscovy...".

The exhibition is held in the exhibition hall of the Museum-Reserve "Alexander Sloboda" in Alexandrov, the Vladimir Region. This traveling exhibition is organized in the framework of the exchange of exhibitions with regional museums of the Russian Federation. The main exhibit of the exhibition is the book of Adam O’Leary "Descriptions of Travel in Muscovy, Tartary and Persia…" and prints, which it is richly illustrated with.

Adam O’Leary (1599-1671) – a German explorer, physicist, mathematician, astronomer, biologist, historian, writer, painter, poet and translator. The first trip to Russia and Persia O’Leary as secretary and interpreter took in 1633, during the reign of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, as part of Schleswig-Holstein embassy of Friedrich III. The purpose of the embassy is to establish trade relations with these countries.

The second embassy, where O’Leary was already in the position of adviser, was held in 1636-1638, respectively. Traveler path was full of surprises and adventures, sometimes tragic. Day after day, describing his experience, O’Leary accompanied his notes with numerous sketches of what he saw.

In 1647, the first edition of the book Adam O’Leary, which contained a significant amount of prints and detailed descriptions of life in Russia, the manners and customs of its inhabitants, was issued. The book was reprinted several times, becoming the most important source of history and everyday life of Russia of the XVII century. The exhibition displays rare edition of O’Leary of 1727.

Presented at the exhibition 45 engravings reflect the entire route of the embassy in the territory of Russia. They depict how Russian city - Novgorod, Tver, Torzhok, Moscow, Samara, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan and others looked like, encountered in the path of the embassy. Engravings are accompanied by appropriate quotations from the book O’Leary.

An important part of the exhibition was the section covering the original subjects of the XVII century, as well as items made in the XIX century, but reproduced the style of the XVII century. These witnesses of the past will allow visitors to get closer to the subject of the environment surrounding of O’Leary during his trip to Muscovy.

The exhibition will run until November 30, 2014.