This study analyzes the travelogue of Francesco da Collo, an imperial envoy to Moscow (1518–1519), focusing on his representation of Eastern European physical geography. Despite the contemporary refutation of the Riphean and Hyperborean mountains by Mathias de Miechow (1517), Da Collo maintained that these ranges were the necessary sources of major rivers, particularly the Tanais (Don). The author argues that this adherence to classical cartography was driven by a theoretical concern for the stability of the Mediterranean hydrosystem. Believing that the Mediterranean relied on the Tanais, Da Collo argued that such massive water volumes could not originate from lowland marshes but required high-altitude sources. Consequently, he erroneously posited that the Volga flows into the Tanais—and thus the Mediterranean—rather than the Caspian Sea, preserving a hydrographic logic rooted in antiquity.
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MIGIMO), Russian Federation - ORCID: 0000-0002-6766-9505
Chapter Title
«Волга не может впадать в Каспийское море»: космографические умозаключения габсбургского дипломата Франческо да Колло, продиктованные тревогой об экологии
Authors
Oleg Kudriavtsev
Language
Russian
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0893-2.06
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
In dialogo con l'Occidente: Rinascimento e renovatio nella Russia del Cinquecento / В диалоге с Западом: возрождение и религиозное обновление в России XVI века
Editors
Marcello Garzaniti, Ovanes Akopyan, Iris Karafillidis, Francesca Romoli
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
240
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0893-2
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0916-8
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0893-2
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0894-9
Series Title
Europe in between. Histories, cultures and languages from Central Europe to the Eurasian Steppes
Series ISSN
2975-0318
Series E-ISSN
2975-0326