Beschreibung:

REMIZOV, Aleksey Mikhailovich (1877-1957, compiler and editor). A collection of 18th-century manuscripts documenting the construction of St. Petersburg, with Remizov’s transcriptions and notes. [St Petersburg], 1719-1732 and 1921-1940. Unique dossier of contemporary sources documenting the exceptional growth of St Petersburg in the first third of the 18 th century ; at the same time a fascinating object revealing A.M. Remizov’s editorial modus operandi. Fifty-two letters from the reign of Peter the Great and ten from 1732, including from known Imperial correspondents, provide an insight into an extraordinarily fecund time in the life of the great city. A.M. Remizov (1877-1957), author, historian and calligrapher, interleaved the correspondence with notes on the contents, and his excellent transcriptions include valuable additional historical details. Among the notable letters there is one (from A. Devier, General Adjudant to Peter I and chief of police in the city) dated 27-28 January 1720 mentioning the Swiss Italian architect Domenico Trezzini (ca.1670-1734), who designed some of the most important buildings in Petrine Baroque style. As well as the construction of the city with details of the upgrading from wooden to stone buildings and the order of construction materials, the subjects include: wine and tobacco; white bears (from Boris Neronov to Pr. Aleksey Mikhailovich Cherkasskii, governor of Siberia 1719-24); sending materials for the Empress’ garden (22 January 1720); bridge construction (from Devier to Cherkasskii; ukazi from the Emperor to Semen Kishkin, his courier, and to F. Bronshtein); a mill, from Ul’ian Akimovich Siniavin (chief of the Chancery overseeing the construction of the city) and others to Stepan Karpovich Karpov, ‘Commisar’ Semen Mikhailovich Pavlov, and others; the ‘Red Crow’ during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. The first leaf with Remizov’s signature is dated Charlottenburg in Berlin 18-23 December 1921, while the title to the transcriptions is dated Paris 14 November 1940. Elena Obatnina in her work Tsar’ Asyka (St Petersburg, 2001) mentions the purchase of the volume in Paris by S.L. Poliakov-Litovtsev (1875-1945) and its donation to Remizov, and the latter’s transcription ‘word for word’ (p.255). Manuscripts on paper comprising 67 letters on 74 pages and approximately 180 pages of transcriptions and notes in Remizov’s hand (220 x 175mm), mostly in Russian, some with contemporary annotations, later numeration. (Some slightly soiled, a few with tears and loss.) 20th-century vellum, spine titled ‘Lettres russes 1719-1732’, marbled endpapers (slightly soiled). Provenance: S.L. Poliakov-Litovtsev (1875-1945; gifted to and completed by:) — Aleksey Mikhailovich Remizov.