9 - Olearius: Text and Image Order the World

Summary

Chapter 9 focuses in on the 100 plus illustrations in Olearius’s 1656 edition. It explores visual precedents for illustrated books (including illustrated Bibles and psalters) in his time, but finds none so copiously illustrated, with illustrations carefully keyed to the text. The chapter analyzes how Olearius curated his illustrations, packing them with scenes, costumes and architecture as mentioned in the adjacent text. Olearius strove for eyewitness representation, and yet elements of trope and borrowed images inevitably crept in to such a large engraving project. The chapter undertakes a careful analysis of the sources of his image of the embassy’s audience with Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, linking his imagery with borrowed templates from the famous de Bry family of engravers. The chapter concludes by exploring how the illustrations complement Olearius’s textual argument about the European, Russian and Persian civilizations.