University Library of Bern UB

Russia's enchanting orient: Caucasia and Central Asia

The transformation of the geographical world view resulting from encounters with Muscovy

Geographical knowledge in the Renaissance remained rooted in ancient perceptions.

For example, popular belief was that the region that we recognize today as Russia was formerly a place of earthly paradise that existed beyond Sarmatia and the Riphean and Hyperborean mountains.

Karte des Flussystems Russlands nach Sebastian Münster
Russia's river system according to a woodcut illustration by Sebastian Münster (C. Iulii Solini Polyhistor: Rerum toto orbe memorabilium thesaurus locupletissimus, Basel 1538)

Between the Arctic Ocean and the Sea of Azov people of the ancient world believed there was only an isthmus, which was also intersected by the Tanaïs (Don) River. This fluvial border appeared to separate what was in effect one entire Eurasian land mass into a European and Asian continent.

Bild einer Eurasien-Karte von Anthony Jenkinson, 1562
Anthony Jenkinson's map (1562) shows a Russian and Tatar East, populated by unfamiliar people with peculiar customs.

Maciej z Miechowa and Sigismund von Herberstein revised this geographical world view with their essays.

Henceforth, it was no longer possible for Europe, and subsequently also Russia, to separate themselves from "wild Asia" using geographical criteria. Since the Enlightenment, the benchmark of so-called "civilization" assumed this task.