Frederick Casimir Wolff SJ (1643-1708) and Thomas Dunin Szpot SJ (1644–1713) – Polish Jesuits as Cultural Mediators during the Time of Tsar Peter I’s Embassy to Europe (1697–1698)
Abstract
The Great Embassy of Tsar Peter I Alexeyevich Romanov, or the diplomatic journey to Western Europe, took place between March 9/10, 1697, and August 25, 1698. It was accompanied by the extensive activities of other Muscovite diplomats, such as Boris Sheremetev. As early as March 1698, he visited Vienna, where he received recommendation letters to Frederick Casimir Wolff SJ, an imperial diplomat originating from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, specifically from a senatorial family from the Inflanty Voivodeship. Father Wolff recommended in Rome the reception of Sheremetev, supposedly inclined towards the union, by a Jesuit knowledgeable in the Slavic language. In this way, the paths of the Muscovite diplomat and Father Thomas Dunin Szpot crossed. Szpot left an account describing Sheremetev’s visit and audiences in Rome, during which General of the Order Tirso Gonzalez de Santalla offered the Muscovite diplomat as gifts Polish manuscripts prepared by Szpot on topics like the missions in Japan or the decrees of the ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church. This account also portrays Tsar Peter I’s stay in Vienna, where special bonds of intimacy developed between Father Wolff and the Tsar, thanks to their ability to communicate in Polish.
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