Ruslan S. Astashkin

PhD in Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy and History of Science

Volga State Transport University

(Samara, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2025-2-154-165

Abstract. The article analyzes the reports by Italian authors of the 16th century about the Muscovite state. The materials used are part of the European Rossica, which is the collection of the Western works on Muscovy. As an example, the author considers three sources: ‘On the Embassy of Basil, Grand Prince of Muscovy, to Pope Clement VII’ by Paulus Jovius (Paolo Giovio) (1525), ‘Dispatch on Muscovy’ by Francesco Tiepolo (1560) and ‘Report on Muscovy’ by Raphael Barberini (1564) and assesses the content of these texts in the context of the conditional problem of Russian transit, which formed a specific aspect of the Russian-European relations in the early modern era. Russian transit in this case implies the question of the possible Russian Empire territory use for the development of contacts with Oriental countries. Various representatives of the West (traders, diplomats and Roman Catholic figures) repeatedly expressed interest in transit routes that connected the Muscovite state with Asia. It was mainly about the Great Volga Route, as well as the mythical Northeast Passage that supposedly allowed entering China. There is no special coverage in historiography of the 16th century Italian authors’ contribution to the accumulation and popularization of information about these routes. According to the analysis of the above-mentioned sources, some pieces of the Italian Rossica provided quite interesting and original information on the problem of Russian transit. It seems appropriate to classify these reports according to their subject matter. The author also raises the issue of the practical importance of the Italian writers’ work in the light of Europeans' search for alternative routes to the East in the 16th–17th centuries.
Keywords: history of foreign affairs, Russia, the Muscovite state, the Volga-Caspian transit, Northeast Passage, Volga region, Siberia, Italy.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Astashkin, RS 2025, ‘Information on the Transit Routes to the East in the Italian Rossica of the 16th Century’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 2 (22), pp. 154–165, https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2025-2-154-165 (in Russ.)

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