Artemii Volynskii’s ‘surprising and unusual’ eclipseAn exercise in letter-dating

The source

254 PDF files7.8 gigabytesOver 49 million words

The letter

❝Fragments from Volynskii’s letters, written by his own hand and sent to unknown persons.❞

Artemii Volynskii (1689–1740)☞ 1711–13: Attached to the Russian

embassy to Turkey.

☞ 1715–18: Envoy to Persian Shah Hosein.

☞ 1719–25: Governor of Astrakhan.

☞ 1725–30: Governor of Kazan.

☞ 1738: Appointed cabinet minister.

☞ 1740: Accused of treason and executed.

❝On the 6th of this month there was a lunar eclipse here, very surprising and unusual.❞

❝I have happened before now to see several [eclipses], and we have seen [one] here during our time in Kashan...❞

❝This city is much peſtered with ſcorpions, eſpecially the black kind, reckoned the moſt venomous.❞

Five Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses

The journal

❝On his way through the domains of the Persian Shah, ... [he is to] observe diligently and artfully ... and to keep a secret daily journal.❞—Peter I’s Instruction for Artemii Volynskii

RGADA (Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents)

Fond 77 (‘Russian relations with Persia’), opis’ 1, 1715—1718, edinitsa khraneniia 2.

The journal (by his own hand, found in the papers remaining after Count Ostermann) of lieutenant-colonel Artemii Volynskii during his time as an envoy to Persian Shah Hosein.

❝On the 6th of this month we saw here an eclipse of the moon which was very surprising and unusual.❞

What I don’t know☞ What came first: the letter or the journal?

☞ Who was the addressee?

☞ Was the letter ever sent – and if not, how much does it matter?

☞ Does the original letter survive?

Up for discussion☞ Academic sleuthing in the digital age.

☞ The process of letter-writing.

☞ Representations of the same event in private letters and public documents – in this case, a journal composed for the sovereign and his advisors.

Thank you!