Collins, Samuel

In the biography of Samuel Collins, there is great confusion: both in Russian and in foreign sources it is mixed with two other English doctors of the 17th century who bore the same name ^[1] .

Samuel Collins “the first” was born in 1619 in a Vicar family in Braintree , studied at Cambridge , but left the university without graduating and went to Padua . Here he received the title of Doctor of Medicine, then returned to England and again received the same degree at Oxford University (1659). Soon after, Collins probably left for Holland.

At this time, the English merchant John Gebdon , as a Moscow resident in England and Holland, came to Holland to recruit officers, doctors and pharmacists to the Russian service ^[2] . On one of his two visits to Holland (between March and December 1659 or in the summer of 1660), Gebdon met with Collins and offered him the vacant post of life doctor under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich . Collins agreed and came to Moscow with Gebdon.

Collins spent nine years in Moscow, then, at his own request, he was released to his homeland, very generously awarded ^[3] . Although a farewell audience and vacation documents were given to him on June 28, 1666, for some reason he remained in Moscow until 1668.

It is known that in 1669 Collins was in London, but soon left for Paris, where he died on October 26, 1670.

In the church of his native town of Braintree no a memorial plate was installed of his own free will, which gives some dates and sheds light on the circumstances of the last years of his life ^[4] .

After the death of Collins, one of his students or friends, who was with him in Russia, handed over to the English publisher the notes from Collins about his stay in Moscow, which were given the form of a letter. The book, first published in London in 1671 ^[5] , attracted the attention of contemporaries and took a rather important place among foreign sources about the Moscow state. Its full title is: “The present state of Russia, set out in a letter to a friend who lives in London, is one significant person who has been at the court of the Moscow Tsar for nine years” (The Present State of Russia, in a letter to a friend at London, written by a Eminent Person, residing at the Great Tzars Court in Mosco for the Space of nine years. - London, 1671).

Further information communicated by Collins was presented on behalf of another author. In the Amsterdam edition of Lamartinier ’s book “Journey to the Northern Countries”, the publisher introduced, without the name of Collins, his entire essay on Russia, attributing it to a certain Frenchman whom he allegedly met in the Pechora Forests. This counterfeiting was disclosed only in 1913: “the fact that the information provided by Martinier about Russia is nothing more than a simple reprint of Collins' work was not known to the German publisher, who in the preface cites various authors who wrote about Russia and Collins, not English, which, as can be seen from the title page, really considers the author of the Frenchman who lived in Russia ” ^[6] . He did not know this and did not indicate in his Russian translation the books of Lamartinier and V. Semenkovich ^[7] .

The first Russian translation of Collins' work ^[8] , made by Nikolai Polev in the French edition of 1679 ^[9] , has additions, omissions, and great inaccuracies. The English original and the name of the author, located in the registry at the end of the book, became known to Polevoy only by typing his translation.

The first Russian translation from the English edition of 1671 ^{[10] was} given by Peter Kireevsky . Here, for some reason, a passage is missing concerning the origin of B. I. Morozov ^[11] . Due to censorship, some deliberate distortions were allowed ^[12] .

An edited fragment of Kireevsky’s translation (with information about Siberia) was reprinted in 2006 ^[13]

When he was in Russian service, Collins recorded several Russian fairy tales and fabulous traditions ^[14] , the main character of which is Tsar Ivan the Terrible .

1. ↑ The most accurate and detailed biographical data on Collins is provided by the Dictionary of National Biography (1887. - Vol. 11. - P. 375-376) and Wilh. Graf in his German translation of his work (Leipzig, 1929. — S. V-VI). Other authors, as a rule, give incorrect information, mixing Collins, who lived in Moscow, with two other doctors: Samuel Collins “the second” (1618-1710), who also studied at Oxford, Padua, and Cambridge, a life doctor the English king and the author of the work “A Systeme of Anathomy” (London, 1685), or with Samuel Collins “the third” (1617-1685), also a graduate of Cambridge and Oxford Universities. We find this confusion in such widespread works as: Richter WM Geschichte der Medizin in Russland. - Moskau, 1815. - Bd. 2. - S. 276-281; Adelung. Kritisch-Literarische Uebersicht. - SPb., 1846. - Bd 2. - S. 342-344; Nouvelle Biographic Generale. - Paris, 1856. - Vol. II. - P. 195; Biographic Universelle (Michaud). - Paris, 1854. - Vol. 8. - P. 602-603; Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Aerzte aller Zeiten und Voelker / Hrsg. Gurlt-hirsch. - Wien; Leipzig, 1885. - Bd. 2. - S. 57; etc., not to mention the numerous Russian works. This confusing biographical question was finally clarified by Wilhelm Graf.
2. ↑ Gurlyan I. Ya. Ivan Gebdon, commissar and resident. - Yaroslavl, 1903
3. ↑ Proceedings and annals of OIDR. - M., 1837. - 8. - S. 397-400.
4. ↑ The text is reproduced in its entirety in Notes and Queries (I860. - 2-nd Series, 10, nr. 238. - P. 42-43.
5. ↑ Researcher of the 19th century Adelung claimed that the first edition of this book appeared in 1667. This is a definite mistake, however repeated in many Russian studies. The alleged 1667 edition is missing from the British Museum and is not known to any of the West European bibliographers.
6. ↑ A. Braudo, in the book: Collection in honor of D.F. Kobeko. - SPb., 1913. - S. 255.
7. ↑ Lamartinier, Pierre Martin de. A trip to the northern countries, which describes the morals, lifestyle and superstition of the Norwegians, Laplanders, Kilopes, Borandais, Siberians, Samoyeds, New Zealanders and Icelanders = Voyage des pais septentrionaux: with many drawings / De Lamartinier; trans., explanations [entry. Art.] and note. V. N. Semenkovich, mechanical engineer and scientific archaeologist ...; per. and pech. under the supervision of S.K. Kuznetsov. - [Moscow]: Ed. Moscow Archaeological Institute, 1911. Text read on p. 127-178, borrowed from Collins.
8. ↑ Rus. Vestn. - 1841. - No. 9.
9. ↑ Relation curieuse de l'estat present de la Russie, traduite d'un auteur anglais. - 1679.
10. ↑ CHOIDR. The first year. - 1846. - No. 1; and depart .: M., 1846.
11. ↑ This passage can be found in other publications: Moscow West. - 1828. - Part 7, No. 2; Mintslov S. R. Review of notes, diaries, memoirs, letters and travels. - Novgorod, 1911. - Issue. 1 .-- S. 60.
12. ↑ Alekseev M.P. To jokes about Ivan the Terrible by S. Collins // Soviet Folklore: Sat. articles and materials No. 2-3 / Ed. AN - L., 1936 .-- S. 325-330.
13. ↑ Collins S. About Siberia and its inhabitants // Siberia in the news of Western European travelers and writers, XIII-XVII centuries. - Novosibirsk: Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2006.
14. ↑ Tale of Ivan the Terrible in the recording of Samuel Collins (XVII century) // Russian tales in early records and publications (XVI — XVIII centuries) / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Ethnography N.N. Miklouho-Maclay. - L .: Science. Leningra. Otdel, 1971.- S. 265.