Antonio Possevino (1533 or 1534–1611)
Moscovia [Muscovy]
Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1587
NYPL, Rare Books Division

In 1581, Pope Gregory VIII sent Possevino, of the Society of Jesus, to mediate a dispute between the Muscovite Tsar and the Polish King. However, it was also the Pope's desire to bring about a reconciliation between Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholic Church, ending the schism that began in 1054. While Possevino's mission to the court of Ivan IV, “the Terrible” (r. 1533–84), failed to achieve reunification under papal authority, he did produce a wide-ranging travel account that is considered a perceptive and accurate description of Ivan's Muscovy – whose population he portrayed as kept in check by fear and the very unpredictability of Ivan's actions.

The map accompanying Possevino's account reproduces that of an earlier English traveler, and depicts the relatively more urbanized western parts of the Muscovite state, represented by buildings and city symbols, and the unsettled east, its spaces filled in with depictions of nomadic peoples, their tents, and camels.

The capital of the Tatar khanate of Sibir (on the map, “Siber”), along the Irtysh River, is seen at the upper right. Its capture by the Cossack Ermak (d. 1585) in the late 16th century paved the way for further Russian expansion eastward. Ivan himself appears at the upper left corner, in a tent, perhaps portrayed as the “new” Great Khan.