ADVERTISEMENT.

SINCE the publication of the first volume of the present work, the Editor has been kindly favoured by the Prince Alexis Lobanoff Rostovski, of Berlin, with the following four points of additional information (respectively marked I, II, III, IV) touching the bibliography of those writers who preceded the date of Herberstein's first embassy to Russia in 1517.

I. The existence of a traveller in Russia, previously unknown to the Editor, named

GUILLEBERT DE LANNOY,

whose family derived its origin from the small town of Lannoy, in Flanders.

Guillebert de Lannoy was born about 1386, and seems to have early adopted the career of arms. In 1413-14, he made a journey through Prussia, Russia, Lithuania, and Poland; and in 1421, being dispatched to the east on various commissions, principally from Henry V. of England, passed through Poland, on his way to Egypt and Syria. He left an account of these

and his other travels, which was first published by the "Societé des Bibliophiles de Mons", in No. 10 of their publications, with the title

Voyages et Ambassades de Messire Guillebert de Lannoy, chevalier de la toison d'or. Seigneur de Santes, etc., etc. 1399-1450. Mons, 1840 (or rather 1842);

under the editorial care of Mr. C. P. Serrure, from a manuscript in his library.

For our information respecting this edition, and the incorrectness in its date, we are indebted to an edition, by the learned Joachim Lelewel, of those portions of De Lannoy's work in which he relates his travels in Prussia, Russia, Lithuania, and Poland. It is entitled

Guillebert de Lannoy et ses Voyages en 1413, 1414, et 1421. Commentés en Français et en Polonais par Joachim Lelewel, Bruxelles et Posen, 8vo.

To the preface of this work we would also refer the curious reader for observations on the manuscript originals, which it would be tedious for us to dwell upon in this advertisement.

II. Two editions of Eneas Sylvius' work, on Prussia and Livonia. The first, entitled

Enee Silvii episcopi Senensis de situ et origine Pruthenorum-De Livonia ejusque ortu et situ, etc. Sine anno et loco; but, according to Brunet, Cologne, about 1470.

The second edition referred to by the Prince, occurs in the "Æneæ Silvii opera Geographica et Historica". Helmstadii, 1699, 4to., pp. 272-83.

III. An edition of Marco Polo, published at Venice in 1847, entitled

I Viaggi di Marco Polo Veneziano tradotti per la prima volta dall' originale francese di Rusticiano di Pisa e corredati d'illustrazioni e di documenti da Vincenzo Lazari, Venezia, 1847, 8vo.

The Editor's attention was also kindly directed to this publication by the Vicomte de Santarem, and by Dr. Henderson, a member of the Hakluyt Society. The latter gentleman in his letter states, that “it appeared towards the close of the scientific meeting, which was held at Venice in the autumn of 1847, and which was commemorated by a medal in honour of Marco Polo, and by the erection of his bust in one of the galleries of the Ducal Palace."

IV. An edition of Herberstein, in the first volume of "Historiæ Ruthenicæ Scriptores exteri sæculi xvi. Collegit et ad veterum editionum fidem edidit Adalb. de Starczewski." Berolini et Petropoli, 1841-42, 2 vols., 8vo., without note or comment.

The curious and interesting documents appended to this work have been selected, not only as matter supplementary and akin to the Commentarii, but because the originals of them appeared in the interval between the period of Herberstein's first journey to Russia, and the publication of his great work in 1549; while the longest and most important, viz., that by Paulus Jovius, is given as an appendix to most of the early Latin editions. They were first published collectively in Ramusio's "Navigationi et

Viaggi", and afterwards "gathered in parte and done into Englyshe by Richarde Eden", as he himself expresses it, in his "History of Travayle in the West and East Indies, etc." The first edition of Eden was in 1555, but for the convenience of the reader, on account of the improvement in the language and spelling, the present reprint is given from the edition of 1577.