An early town-view of Tarku in the Republic of Dagestan. It was published in ‘Voyages en Moscovie, Tartarie et Perse, par Adam Olearius’. Adam Oelschlager, or Olearius, was employed as secretary to an embassy sent by the Duke of Holstein-Gotthorp’s to the Tsar of Russia and the Shah of Persia. The purpose was to initiate trade relations with Russia, Tartary and Persia. Olearius was a seventeenth-century German scholar, he was sent to explore an overland trade route with Persia. The first embassy to Russia in 1633-34 was to secure the Tsar’s permission to travel and ship through his realm. The second in 1635 was to negotiate with the Shah of Persia. The mission turned out to be a commercial failure but a vast amount of information was gathered by Olearius. After returning to Holstein in 1639 Olearius published the first edition of his travels in 1647. A second enlarged edition appeared in 1656. It was a popular work quickly translated into Dutch, French, Italian and English.