Engraving "View of Voronezh from Chizhovsky heights. Drawing by Cornelius de Bruin. 1703."

Original engraving (impression from a copper plate) depicting the view Voronezh from a bird's-eye view from the book Cornelia de Bruina "Journey through Muscovy to India and Persia", printed in Amsterdam in 1711. Verger paper, watermarks (vertical stripes). The size of the sheet is 23.5 * 63.5 cm, the reverse side is clean. In a modern author's wooden frame, under anti-reflective glass. Yellowing of the paper. Rare. Guarantee of authenticity.

Cornelius de Bruin is a famous Dutch traveler. In the early 1700s, he undertook a journey through Muscovy to India and Persia, after which he wrote a book of the same name, where he described the countries, the cities he saw, nature, population and lifestyle of the "natives". Voronezh together with Peter I visited in 1703. Here is how K. de Bruin himself describes the history of the origin of this engraving: "On the 10th I went to look for a place from which it would be convenient to remove the city. To do this, I chose the highest place on the mountain, two versts southwest of the city. It was there that I started my work, but I could not continue it because of the former severe cold and wind. The next day I went there again on foot, in order to warm up on the road, and took with me my servant and three rear admiral's sailors: the latter in order that they would refrain from interfering with me Russians, who were attracted by curiosity to see what I was doing. I ordered my companions to stock up with a large matting, several stakes, an axe and a shovel to dig a hole in the ground in which I could comfortably fit. Having dug a hole, I made myself a protection from the back side of the matting so that the wind would not blow so hard on me.

Having thus placed myself in the pit, it was no longer difficult for me to see and examine the city and the entire area along the river. But I didn't sit there for long, not being open. Two shipwrights, Englishmen, saw me from the river and sent two or three people to find out what I was doing. When I saw these people approaching us, I ordered the sailors armed with half-spears not to let them near me, not to tell anyone what I was doing, and, if asked about it, to answer that they did not know anything. Meanwhile, more than fifty Russians had gathered on the mountain, attracted by curiosity and the novelty of the spectacle, which they did not understand what it meant; but when they approached, the sailors dispersed them, and they did not dare to approach me. When I returned to my dwelling in the evening, I learned from the rear admiral that a rumor had been spread there that one of the tsar's servants was being buried alive on the top of the mountain, but it was unknown who exactly and for what; that this unfortunate man was already buried to the waist and was holding a book in his hands (so the paper was explained where I was filming); that no one could approach him, because three sentries were standing there and did not allow anyone to enter. Even the officers themselves believed this rumor and asked each other who it would be who suffered such a cruel punishment. When, on the 12th, everyone saw that the unfortunate criminal had changed his place and that, consequently, they were deceived in their guesses, they took another absurdity into their heads.

At some distance from the former place there was an old cemetery, where I had previously been met a few days ago and where I had now moved again for my own filming work. Not knowing what to think, the Russians came to the conclusion that I must have been some kind of prophet who came from across the sea with the intention of visiting ancient cemeteries, serving mass for the dead and performing other religious rites, since I constantly had a book in my hands. They also told me that I almost always wore a gray Ugric cloak, that I was always followed by a servant who wore some kind of blue mantle for me, and that, finally, I was always accompanied by three rear admiral sailors. These funny gossips could have brought trouble on me, since there were always a lot of curious people, if only the tsar himself had not been in the city at the same time."