Isaac Massa

Infobox Person
name = Isaac Massa

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caption = Portrait by Frans Hals, 1626
birth_date = October 7, 1586
birth_place = Haarlem
death_date = 1643
death_place =
other_names =
known_for = Embassy to Russia and memoirs of the Time of Troubles
occupation = merchant, diplomat, cartographer
nationality = Dutch

Isaac Abrahamszoon Massa (baptized October 7, 1586 in Haarlem, died 1643) [Year of death, 1643, as in Keuning, p. 65. Russian sources (e.g. Massa, 1997 p. 467) state it as 1635] was a Dutch grain trader, traveler and diplomat, the envoy to Muscovy, author of memoirs witnessing the Time of Troubles and the maps of Eastern Europe and Siberia. Massa's experience in and knowledge of Muscovy transformed him into a Dutch "Kremlinologist." [* [https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/3.CS/3.L/3.L.30.html DEATH OF THE FIRST FALSE DMITRII] ] The Isaac Massa Foundation in Groningen aims to stimulate scientific and cultural contacts between the Russian Federation and the Netherlands.

Biography

Isaac Massa was born in a wealthy silk merchant's family that relocated from Liege to Haarlem before his birth. His ancestors could have been Italian huguenots who fled their homeland in the beginning of the Reformation.Massa, 1997 p. 466] The family surname was also known as "Massart", "Massaert".

In 1601 Isaac left Haarlem for Moscow to assist the family trade. [Russian sources (Massa, 1997 p. 467) state that he was sent by his father, but Keuning suggests that Abraham Massa could have been dead as early as 1598] Isaac has been witness to the second half of Boris Godunov's reign that evolved into a civil war now known as the Time of Troubles. He survived the capture of Moscow by False Dmitriy I and left Russia in 1609, before the fall of tsar Vasily Shuysky. Massa compiled an account of 1601-1609 events ( _nl. Een cort Verhael van Begin en Oorgspronk deser tegenwoordighe Oorlogen en troebelen in Moscouia) presented to Stadtholder Maurice and reproduced in print in the 19th century. In 1612-1613 Massa published two articles on Russian events and the geography of the "Land of Samoyeds", [Fragments reprinted in Schilder, p. 500] accompanied with a map of Russia, in an almanac edited by Hessel Gerritsz.

These articles were translated and reproduced in European languages anonymously, because the author's name was removed in early Dutch reissues. The most complete translations were issued in Russian in 1937 (reissued in 1997) and in English in 1982. Massa's writing was based on an underlying concept of indispensable punishment for sins. Godunov, False Dimitri and the nation itself all paid for their mortal sins (Massa was confident that Godunov killed Feodor I and the real Tsarevich Dimitri). Russian sources consider him the least biased of contemporary Western witnesses, and a very well informed one (his comtemporary, Jacob De la Gardie, characterized Massa as "extremely artful in learning other people's secrets").Massa, 1997 p. 468]

Massa is credited with five published maps of Russia and its provinces, the last ones compiled around 1633, and two maps of Moscow city, including the schematic account of 1606 battle between Vasily Shuysky and Ivan Bolotnikov's armies.Massa, 1997 p. 467] Retrieving original muscovite maps could have been dangerous for Massa himself and fatal for his Russian sources. [Woodward, p. 67] Massa's rendition of the Siberian coast represented an advance in geography and for decades remained the only map of this region. It was subsequently copied by Mercator and Hondius, Jan Janssonius and Willem Blaeu. [Schilder, p. 501]

In 1614 Massa returned to Moscow as an envoy of States-General of the Netherlands to obtain an exclusive trade agreement similar to the recent Dutch-Ottoman treaty, as well as investigate the trade routes into Persia. Massa promoted the idea of setting up a trading cartel similar to the English Muscovy Company, but internal problems in the Netherlands delayed consolidation of traders into 1628. [Engels, pp. 161, 165] For the next two decades Massa combined diplomatic service with his own business.

Massa has been the subject of two portraits by Frans Hals - solo (1626) and with his wife (1622); [ [http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_assets/SK-A-133?id=SK-A-133&page=0&lang=en&context_space=&context_id= Rijksmuseum on Hals, Massa and his wife] ] the latter is considered unique in composition for the period; [Westermann, p. 135] the novel composition was probably Massa's own design. [Harris, p. 323] Massa owned a country house near Lisse, next to his brother-in-law, Adriaen Maertensz Block.

References

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