Author: Oderborn Paul, 1556 - 1604
Title: Wunderbare, Erschreckliche, Unerhörte Geschichte, und wahrhaffte Historien: Nemlich, des nechst gewesenen Großfürsten in der Moschkaw Joan Basilidis, (auff ire Sprach Iwan Basilowitz genandt) Leben.
Title in English: Unusual, Terrifying, Extraordinary Story and Realistic Tales: Namely, the Life of Recently Deceased Grand Duke of Moscow Joan Basilidis (Called Ivan Vasilyevich in Their Language).
Published: Görlitz, Ambrosius Fritsch, 1588.
Format: 4 °. 117 Bll. Parchment of old material VD 16 O 259.
Binding: this copy is bound in later but nice full vellum (old vellum used in modern times in old style), there is little browning or spotting.
This is a complete and well preserved copy of one of the first European books on Russia in the first German edition. It deals with Ivan Grosni and is an important source for the war between Russia and the Baltic states between 1558 and 1582.
The German translation of Paul Orderborn’s Life of the Grand Duke of Muscovy Ivan Vasilyevich, published in Görlitz in 1588, three years after the first edition in Latin.
Reference: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 243.
Published: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 242-243.