Balatri Filippo (Filippo Balatri)

Main article: Music in Russia in the XVIII century

Filippo Balatri is an Italian castrato singer who left valuable memories of his stay at the court of Peter I.

Biography

In all encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries, Filippo Balatri's date of birth is marked 1676, but in fact he was born on February 21, 1682 in the family of a petty official (caretaker of the University of Pisa), who was in the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo the Third. This error owes its origin to Carl Vossler, the first publisher of one of Balatri's works, his autobiographical poem "The Fruits of Peace." Vossler set the date of birth of Balatri based on the chronicles of the monastery of Fürstenfeldt, located near Munich, where in 1739 the ordination of a sixty-three-year-old former court singer, whose name in the world was Dionisio Balatri, was registered. Taking this conclusion from Fossler, the Italian researcher M.A. Mazzei, who in turn published one of the Balatri manuscripts stored in Corton, conducted a study in the archive of the Council of Pisa and discovered a birth record of a certain Dionisio Balatri, dated 1673. In fact, this record was related to the elder brother Filippo, who died in childhood, while he himself, as Maria di ^[1] managed to establish, was born in 1682 and was baptized under the name Filippo Dionisio, possibly in memory of the late brother.

The musical abilities of the young Pisan very quickly began to attract attention to him, and parents, as very often happened in those days, succumbed to the persuasion to castrate their son in the hope of providing him with a brilliant singing career in the future.

In the late 1790s, the young man ended up in the court service in Florence, where Peter Alekseevich Golitsyn arrives with an order from Peter the Great to recruit musicians for the Russian court.

Peter Golitsyn, brother of the famous Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn, arrived in Italy in June 1697 with a large group of Russian "navigators," which included his brother Fedor, B.I. Kurakin, P.A. Tolstoy. In Italy, he spent more than a year studying the Italian language and maritime affairs, as well as traveling around the country, where he was received with those honors, curiosity and hopes that, given his high position and rumors about the oddities of the Russian tsar, which came from the European capitals already mastered by the Great Embassy of Peter I, seemed to be the most relevant to the diplomatic circles of Italian states.

During the reign of Cosimo the Third, Florence was already in decline: the Medici dynasty was soon to disappear, and the Grand Duke made considerable diplomatic efforts to maintain his position in European politics and ensure the preservation of his state. Therefore, he repeatedly acted as an intermediary in relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Muscovy and showed great willingness to meet the demands of the king.

The choice of Cosimo, who wanted to appease Peter, fell on the young Balatri, as a result of which he was sent with Golitsyn to Venice, the last stage of the Great Embassy, where everyone was looking forward to the arrival of the Russian tsar. The riot of archers in Moscow, as you know, prevented the implementation of these plans.

1698: Leaving for Russia at the age of 14 with Peter Golitsyn

When in early November 1698, Prince Peter Alekseevich Golitsyn left Florence and went to his Moscow house, he was accompanied fourteen-year-old Filippo Balatri, nicknamed Russian Filippushka.

Balatri does not describe his journey to Moscow in detail.

Balatri was not the only foreigner who came from Italy to Moscow with Peter Golitsyn, who actively recruited masters, scientists, artists and musicians for the royal service.

Balatri arrived in Moscow in early February 1699.

At the request of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the young singer kept detailed recordings of his Moscow impressions, which were intended to satisfy the curiosity caused by this country and its exotic nationalities for Europeans.

Jan Frans van Duven, Portrait of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de'Medici (1642-1723), circa 1700

1701: Moving to Vienna with Peter Golitsyn and returning to Tuscany

Balatri remained in Moscow until 1701, when Golitsyn was appointed ambassador of the tsar to the imperial court in Vienna and took Balatri with him.

In Vienna, Balatri studied singing for two years with the famous contralto Gaetano Orsini.

Subsequently, Balatri regretted that his young age did not allow him to understand and appreciate the importance of many of the events he witnessed, and undoubtedly his judgments were often superficial and reflected ideas already common by that time in the West. Nevertheless, after returning to his homeland in 1701, he realized that his life in Muscovy and the ability to vividly and humorously tell individual episodes from this journey everywhere draw attention to his personality and become an additional source of popularity besides his singing abilities.

In Pisa, Phillipo Balatri sang as a soprano in Chiesa dei Cavalieri from 1703 to 1713. Temporarily in 1711, he was summoned to Florence by Grand Duke Cosimo as an interpreter for the Russian envoy Prince Naryshkin.

1714: The beginning of wanderings in the countries of Europe

After spending many years in Tuscany, where Cosimo the Third, who was not a great connoisseur of music, deprived him of his hope to make a career, Balatri, after the death of his parents, leaves (1714) in search of happiness with his brother from Tuscany and, after long wanderings in different countries (France, England, Germany and Austria), finally finds himself a place as a singer, and then a music teacher at the Bavarian court. Here, except for his brief absences to Italy for the purpose of treatment, he spends the rest of his life.

In Munich around 1725, he began to write on the basis of youthful notes the history of his adventures (Vita e viaggi), and then the autobiographical poem "Fruits of Peace" (I Frutti del mondo) and other literary works.

Due to health problems, Balatri was on vacation in Italy from early 1726 to 1728, temporarily residing in Venice, Padua and Verona, befriending his famous colleague Nicolini, listening to and admiring the young Farinelli. He visited Rome for the Carnival of 1727 and sang at the Théâtre delle Dame Autone in Leonardo Vinci's "Gismondo, King of Poland," alongside Giovanni Battista Minelli and Farfallino (Giacinto Fontana).

Filippo Balatri in a caricature by Anton Maria Zanetti, 1726-1728 (?)

In 1733, Peter Jacob Horemans painted a picture of the court of Johann Theodor of Bavaria, apostolic administrator of Regensburg, in which he depicted a group of musicians in the center, with Filippo Balatri sitting behind a harpsichord in a red robe.

Balatri behind the harpsichord in a painting by Peter Jacob Horemans, 1733

1739: Leaving for the monastery

In 1739, at the age of 57, Balatri entered the Cistercian monastery of Fürstenfeld as a novice.

On July 13, 1741, he was ordained a priest in Ismaning. Three days later, he became a monk and adopted the monastic name Theodor - in memory of his brother Johann Theodor, who asked for papal permission for him so that he could become a monk, being a castrate.

Like his brother Theodore, he performed musical duties, becoming regent of the monastery choir and giving music lessons at the Church of St. John the Theologian. In 1741, his play "Santa Marguerita da Cortona" in German translation was staged in the monastery.

1756: Death at the Monastery

Balatri died in the Fürstenfeldt monastery on September 10, 1756.

Balatri's memoirs about Russia

Balatri left a memoir in which he described the details of his stay in Russia. Although his original diary, kept on the orders of Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany, was lost, his work Vita e viaggi, written in Munich in 1725-1732, is a detailed account of his life.

He finally translated his memories into poetry in 1735. 343 pages of Frutti del Mondo contain a summary of his adventures in ^[2]

About the history of the manuscript

Weighty manuscript entitled "The Life and Travels of Filippo Balatri," consisting of 9 volumes (the tenth volume was lost, and six were dedicated to the author's adventures in Muscovy), after numerous twists and turns, partially reconstructed in a brilliant article by Yu.I. ^[3], Ended up in the sixties of the twentieth century in the Department of Manuscripts ^[4] the Russian State Library (RSL).

Before the appearance of the study by Yu. Gerasimova, all bibliographic information about Balatri was drawn from the poem "The Fruits of the World." The most valuable in the work of the researcher is the restoration of the history of the manuscript itself, the content of which she conveys quite fully. But, unfortunately, the translation of the Italian text into Russian often sins with serious misunderstandings.

The manuscript was not fully studied due to the very large volume and specifics of its structure, as well as the fact that Italian is not so common among historical scholars. All this is the reason why Maria di Salvo decided to prepare an edition of this manuscript in the hope that it would make it more accessible to readers.

On the significance of memories as a historical document

Many years passed between the author's journey to Russia and the writing of "Life and Travel": Balatri himself was aware that the situation he described had changed and did not correspond to the observations he had made anymore. However, the need for a cautious approach to Balatri's story is dictated not only by this time distance.

The fact is that the very figure of the author constantly remains in the center of the narrative. So, for example, almost the entire fourth volume is devoted to the love intrigues of the young Philippushka (as the Russians called him) and Anna Mons, and therefore it is not by chance that he calls his narrative "novel" many times. The genre of this work can rather be attributed to the rogue novel (as the title itself speaks of), it is very little like the exact and professional description of the social and political life of Russia, which we meet, for example, in the Korb Diary, which tells partly about the events of the same time as the narratives of the Italian castrate.

And yet, despite the inaccuracy of dates, the limitations of the author's views and the subjective nature of many of his assessments, Balatri's memories are a peculiar, and in some places a very valuable source of information about the first years of Peter's reforms.

As noted by a few readers of the manuscript, the merit of this work is that it paints a picture of Russian life at the end of the 17th century, describing the life of not only the boyar elite and the court (the author lived in the Golitsyn house, but regularly went to the court to sing for the tsar), but also the German settlement, simple people who the young man could observe during his movements around the city, as well as servants with whom he often communicated. He enjoyed a special position in Moscow that allowed him access to places usually closed to foreign visitors, including chambers in which Golitsyn's wife, Daria Lyapunova, spent her days with other women. The fifth volume of the manuscript is completely devoted to the description of Russian morals.

Frutti del Mondo are an important source of data not so much about the real Russia of Peter the Great as the image of the country preserved by the young Tuscan castrate. Such sources are called ego documents.

For historians, Balatri's texts are in a sense unique. Castratus was not familiar with all the "classical" writings about Russia written before him, such as the notes of Sigismund von Herberstein, Adam Olearius, or his contemporaries, such as Johann Georg Korb, the envoy of the Habsburg Emperor. He did not follow any compositional and stylistic conventions of the first half of the 18th century. He was in no way affected by the written traditions of perception, which determined diplomatic contacts and the exchange of information from the 16th century. It remains unclear to whom exactly he appeals with his sketches.

Unlike professional foreign observers, he did not pay much attention to politics at all. Balatri witnessed the brutal punishment of those who were at a loss due to Peter I's reform agenda. They tried to take advantage of the king's absence during his Grand Embassy. The Troubles were suppressed until the return of Peter I. So, if Korb describes in detail the execution of archers who rebelled against Peter I in 1698 (for the second time), then Balatri believes that he witnessed the hanging of Catholic heretics.

He was distinguished from other researchers by his participation in the daily life of the family of the highest aristocracy, the Golitsins, who were directly affected by the changes during the so-called "Peter's Revolution."

What makes Balatri's case unique is the ego documents he left behind, representing his varied and bizarre experiences inside, not just on the periphery of the Moscow court.

It is therefore somewhat surprising how few historians have addressed his writings as a valuable source. Two Western Balatri specialists, Maria di Salvo and Daniel Schlafly, were unable to complete a critical edition of his works in Italian by 2016.

For 2025, there is still no reliable and complete translation of his works into Russian.

About King Peter I

Peter I developed an interest in Western European music during his "Grand Embassy" of 1697/1698, when he visited the courts of Braunschweig, Königsberg, The Hague, Dresden and Vienna. We have no record of whether he was impressed by the music he heard. However, he was impressed by the way women and men communicated through music - through dance.

Peter I carried out social modernization on an absolute scale, including requiring courtiers, officials and the military to shave off their beards and adopt a European style of clothing. One means of achieving this goal was the introduction in September 1698 of a tax on long beards. A few months after that, Balatri first met Peter.

Balatri had the opportunity to meet Peter in an informal atmosphere that the tsar liked so much: not only during assemblies and other events in the Golitsyn Palace on Tverskaya Street near the Kremlin, one of the first Western-style buildings, but also in the German settlement, a foreign quarter of the capital, founded about three decades before by Father Peter Alexei Mikhailovich. Here, as a pleasant exception to the usual order, Balatri gained access to the house of Anna Mons, the daughter of a winemaker and influential mistress of the king. It was in the rich houses of the German settlement that the Russian nobles and the tsar himself came into contact with Western European music, and it was here, as well as in the Golitsyn Palace, that Balatri performed his vocal parts, Italian arias, as well as Russian folk songs in the Italian style.

Interestingly, Balatri characterizes his singing as "tolerable" for that time, but quite satisfying Peter's desire to hear "our" music in Moscow Jan ^[5]

Balatri paints Peter I with colors usually used by the king's most enthusiastic apologists, attributing to him the traits that the ideal monarch should possess in his view: generosity, justice, tolerance in matters of religion, selfless devotion to the country, chastity (he even denies the king's connection with Anna Mons, which he himself witnessed). We see Peter surrounded by soldiers playing chess with Anna Mons, in all the greatness of power or easily, without ceremony, sitting among working people in Voronezh, where Balatri himself twice accompanied him, being a participant in the solemn launch of a ship designed by Peter.

As in many other memoirs, strange contradictions in Peter's character become obvious here: he is cruel when it comes to justice, up to the point that he requires the executioner to beat the punishable person with a whip more vigorously, but at the same time he is able to mourn the death of Patrick Gordon with combustible tears and is unable to look at the blood flowing from the wound of an accidentally injured Voronezh worker.

At the very beginning, Frutti del Mondo Balatri praises Tsar Peter for his efforts to enrich Muscovy with the sciences and arts by sending his nobles to Western Europe.

Balatri does not doubt for a moment that the Peter's reforms will bring Russia out of the "barbaric state and bring it into the fold of European culture" (moreover, he is sure that over the years of his absence in Russia this has already happened). Nevertheless, he puts such words about the subjects of the Russian state into the tsar's mouth: "I did not force them to take off their Moscow clothes to see stuffed animals discharged by French fashion, but to free them from old and unnecessary habits that are ridiculous and disgusting to me. I travel to other countries not to get acquainted with their religion and rites, but to find what you do not read from books. For the soul, I do not ask them anything, but for political and public life I find what I need in them. "

His ruthless, if fair, activities provoked protest in the country ("fighting with other peoples outside his country with the help of the army, he simultaneously waged war with his own in Moscow with the help of intelligence"), "but, in the end, he always came out victorious thanks to the innate submission of the Russian people. Balatri's attitude towards this latter was ambivalent, but influenced by the emerging European myth of Peter, he is optimistic about Russia's future.

Balatri claims the monarch referred to him as a "son." He is friendly and friendly about castrata.

Although Balatri writes in the 1730s, he calls Peter "king" and never "emperor." His reign is classified as "Regno" (kingdom).

Balatri also recognizes the tsar's openness to the inhabitants of the German settlement and praises him as a very learned monarch who managed to turn "Russian plums into roses."

About court life in Moscow

Balatri calls the Moscow court "great," and, according to him, the tsar is trying to maintain order in it.

On the pages of "Life and Travel" there are many names of high-ranking persons, although their role in the narrative is usually limited to describing more or less expensive gifts presented by them to Balatri for his singing. We meet Menshikov here, who is touched by the pranks of the young singer and, unlike the harsh and suspicious Boris Golitsyn, acts as his patron; two sisters of the king Natalia and Sophia (although, as for the latter, memory probably changes the author); the prim and silent Alexei Petrovich, about whom the singer notes: "Fortunately, the king did not have time to talk to me and ask me what I think of the prince, because in response he would have heard that I did not see the prince, but only his statue."

Prince Peter Alekseevich Golitsyn and his wife, close to the tsar, are depicted in Balatri's work very favorably. Nobles ("i Grandi") generally valued him.

Sleeping bags

Arriving in Moscow, Balatri was forced to stay with his sleeping bags, having no personal life. ^[6]

The position of a sleeping bag at the royal court in the Russian state of the XV-XVII centuries was a court rank, which was responsible for the direct service of the sovereign. The sleeping bags accompanied him, helped him dress and undress, were on duty in his room, and also ensured his personal safety. The sleeping bags were subordinate to the bedsman, who was responsible for the royal bed. Young people of noble origin usually became sleeping bags, which contributed to their rapid advancement through the career ladder.

Spannels (spalnicchi), pages at the Moscow court, apparently, had deep hatred for Balatri not only for religious reasons, but also because of the arrogance that the young castrat developed in himself when the king and his nobles favored him, as he himself admits it. The feud went so far that King Peter decided to remove Balatri from the court in order to avoid further quarrels. As a result, the singer moved to the Golitsyn Palace in Moscow.

Boyars

Another hostile and perhaps even more dangerous group were the "baarins" - "old women" who followed the young girls in the palace and, according to Balatri, hid their predatory essence behind a huge zeal against sin. The term was a misinterpretation of the word "boyaryni."

They also rejected him because of his Roman faith and also because he was (almost) a young man. These "old women" were supposed to protect the young noble girls of the boyar and even the royal families who lived in a secluded tower - a closed women's quarter in the Kremlin - and, as a rule, were suspicious of any foreigner, especially those who visited the German settlement.

Balatri poked fun at the suspicion and at the same time the gullibility of the boyars, attracting young accomplices to his jokes and pranks.

The situation of women

Another point of criticism of Balatri is the position of women whom the king wants to free from "imprisonment" in the aforementioned terem. For Russian nobles, the time for change has come. One of Balatri's first impressions when he entered Russia via Smolensk was that the women did not appear in the same room as the men. In Moscow, the segregation of the sexes was not so strictly observed, and Balatri, being a chamberlain, had the opportunity to switch between male and female spheres in the Kremlin palaces.

Peter approached this problem in a way characteristic of him. Balatri recalls how several Moscow ladies were invited to a ball at the house of François Lefort, the Swiss favorite of Peter. There the king greeted the ladies and tried to dance with them. A guard was put up at the door to prevent guests from going their separate ways ahead of time.

But there were also court events, concerts and performances, where, for example, noble ladies had to hide behind the curtain and were only allowed to listen.

Balatri devotes a special place to the female environment. He himself shows a keen interest in this topic, although outwardly, following literary standards, he plays up hostility to the female sex. Like all foreigners, he is struck by the situation of seclusion in which Russian women live, but thanks to his youth (few people knew about his sexual identity, since nothing was known about the existence of castrati singers in Russia) and his art, which gave him the opportunity to often visit aristocratic houses, he could communicate with women of different ages and social situation.

In addition, he enjoyed free access to the chambers of Daria Golitsyna, who was amused by singing and stories about Italy, carnivals, as well as more pious things, such as, for example, tonsuring maidens as nuns and a vow of obedience, which believers impose on themselves. This intelligent and inquisitive woman who acted as his patron, seeking to raise him in strict rules, became something of a spiritual mentor for Balatri, who in his naive manichaeism could not understand why such a woman, free from the prejudices of most of her like and the wife of a nobleman from the king's inner circle, strongly rejects all his awkward attempts to convert her to the Catholic faith and strictly adheres to the rites prescribed by tradition, categorically rejecting the idea of ​ ​ following a new fashion. As she herself said: "Should I really walk around Moscow in my old age with my head, shoulders and chest uncovered, demonstrating to every man what even my husband does not fully see?"

Nevertheless, it was Daria Lyapunova who was destined to become the first Russian woman to leave her country: her husband was appointed ambassador to the Austrian imperial court in Vienna. Balatri, who left with Golitsyn to then go to his homeland, with a sense of pride describes the reception given to his patroness at the imperial court, the luxury of her outfit, the inconvenience that she felt from the need to put on a corset and stockings, in a word, presents to readers the mixture of exoticism and aristocracy that remained in the memory of those present at the ceremony. Lyapunova did not turn into a Western European lady. Apparently, she simply as the wife of the ambassador and loyal to the king tried to correspond to her position and adequately represent her country. In any case, in Vienna she had to face an unusual reality for a Russian woman of that time: she went to theaters, visited the Catholic Cathedral of St. Stephen, often appeared in the light and showed interest in local customs; but, having returned to Moscow, as far as we know, she began to lead a solitary lifestyle and indulge in prayers.

The personality of Daria Lyapunova is perfectly illustrated by the long and contradictory path that Russian society has passed as a result of Peter's reforms. The portrait, even if simplified, of a separate specific person allows us to imagine the process of psychological changes that took place then in Russia much more accurately than the conclusions subsequently made by the Italian singer.

German Sloboda

It is beyond doubt that, according to Balatri, the exchange between Moscow and Western countries existed even before Peter I. Balatri does not at all paint the image of an isolated, smug Russia.

The description of life in the German settlement occupies a significant place in the memories of the Italian singer, who, not only together with the tsar, is a regular at the house of Anna Mons and becomes for some time without much, however, success by her singing teacher, but also visits the Catholic community, headed by the Florentine merchant Francesco Guasconi: it is he who is entrusted with the guardianship of the young man, informing the Grand Duke of Tuscany how conscientiously the young Balatri performs Catholic rites.

In general, in his memoirs, the settlement appears as a settlement in which gossip and small intrigues reign, but it is here that the king is sent in search of friendly company, collective communication outside conventions and ceremonies, the opportunity to eat deliciously. Dances are arranged here, dress in a western manner, drink wine.

Soon after his arrival in Moscow, Balatri witnesses the famous ball in the Lefortovo Palace, in which, together with the inhabitants of the settlement, some Russian ladies take part, forced by order of Peter to stay at the holiday against their own will, dance and play cards. This episode causes a scandal in the capital, where the people "murmured at the tsar's decision<...> to force these true believers to the ladies to remain on public display during a public holiday near the pagans of the settlement. There was a lot of talk about this in the city, but they spoke in a whisper, and only the clergy resented openly. " Nevertheless, very little time passed, and already these same ladies began to attend other parties, and husbands, "to please the king, stayed at home during these holidays and went about their business or went late at night to get their wives to bring them home to bed."

This mixture of coercion and imitation was essentially supposed to ensure in a simplified understanding of Balatri and the fate of Peter's reforms. He really was sure that as soon as the Russians learned the highest rationality, practicality and good image of European mores, they would immediately abandon their "barbaric customs." At the same time, it was the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the settlement that was supposed to serve as an example, contributing, in the opinion of Balatri, who clearly exaggerated the significance of this example, to the spread of the European lifestyle in Muscovy. So, after the corresponding tsarist decree, Russian women very quickly changed into Western dresses: "Less than six months have passed, and now you have Paris in Moscow, and how to describe the splendor of the clothes that could be seen on Russian aristocrats! Suffice it to say, it was an unprecedented luxury embraced by people who had no shortage of vanity or money. You could see whole crowds of women going to the settlement in order to learn how to sew shirts, caps and couplings, cut their hair, curl and puff, narrow and expand dresses, starch, iron, wash, shave and I don't know what else, I only know that the end of this was not visible ^[7]

About Moscow and the "Muscovites"

The most striking characteristic of Russia, expressed in Frutti del Mondo, is the country's immensity. Balatri rarely uses the term "Russia "/" Russian," but clearly prefers "Muscovy."

Moscow itself is described as a huge city, but very vulnerable to fires due to the wooden construction of houses. In addition, there are almost no prominent buildings.

Balatri's attitude towards Russians, like many modern observers, is a mixture of contempt for the "barbaric" and "primitive" people and admiration for their religiosity, unflappiness, patience, with which he blows away all the hardships of life. Like most foreigners, he experienced the hostility of the Russians, who called him "busurman," showing the same hostility in response.

Folk traditions, which he considered superstitions and which he believed should have disappeared under the influence of the "Europeanization" of the country, nonetheless aroused his curiosity and probably also the curiosity of his listeners. Hence the detailed descriptions of marriage and funeral rites, the Russian bath and its role in folk rituals, lamentations, clothes, holidays, just as later, in England, he is interested in crimes, punishments, public ceremonies. In Russian houses, he is especially struck by the scarcity of the situation, the lack of expensive carpets and fabrics, luxury goods (expensive furniture, watches, musical instruments), the presence of which becomes a pleasant surprise for him in the German settlement.

The attitude of the common people ("Popol'subalterno") towards Balatri was hostile - mainly for religious reasons.

For Filippo Balatri, who entered the Cistercian monastery of Fürstenfeldbruck about four years after writing the "Fruits of Peace," it seems very important that he not only had the opportunity to practice his Catholic faith in Moscow, but the tsar also encouraged him to do so. This should not be understood as universal "tolerance," as Catholic clergy were not allowed to wear cassocks, and Filippo Balatri himself was repeatedly abused because of his Catholic faith. Religion appears to have been a crucial area of conflict. Balatri could not help but know about the fierce struggle against the "foreign" influence on Orthodoxy, which continued until the abolition of the Moscow Patriarchate. It was not only the clergy who were suspicious of the Protestant influence of foreigners and foreign advisers, as well as the "Catholic" invasion through Ukraine. Balatri, based on his own experience, got the impression that most Muscovites are hostile to Western churches. For Russians, Balatri wrote, the Catholic castrate is not a Christian, but a pagan, Muslim or fan of the Golden Taurus, and has been called a "dog" several times. Many did not want to touch him at all. Many Muscovites disliked foreigners solely for religious reasons. Balatri, for his part, is naturally confident that he professes true faith, and accuses Muscovites of superstition. Yet he appreciates the extraordinary fear of God in Muscovy.

Constant references to conflicts on religious grounds certainly have a real basis, but perhaps this fact is also explained by the fact that "Life and Travel" was written for a person whom the author often refers to as a religious figure. In addition, as Balatri ages, he increasingly indulges in religious reflection, which eventually leads him to go to the monastery.

Despite his rather critical statements about "Muscovy" - "a country full of misunderstandings" - and "Muscovites" at the very beginning of the story, where we are talking about his arrival in Moscow, Balatri calls it "Patria" - Homeland. He claims that he learned Russian in a year and a half. The mentioned Anna Mons asked him to write a letter for her "in Moscow."

About a trip to the Kalmyk Khan

The most unusual adventure of Balatri, which certainly contributed to his popularity after returning to the West, was his trip to the Volga, to the Kalmyk khan Ayuka as part of the embassy led by Boris A. Golitsyn, apparently in the late spring of 1700.

Kalmyks (Oirats) were a border power at the time, often allying with the tsarist government against the neighboring Muslim population. During the Ayuki Khan era, visited by Golitsyn (and Balatri), Kalmyks gained political and military significance as the tsarist government sought to make more active use of their cavalry to support their military campaigns against Muslim powers in the south such as Persia, the Ottoman Empire, the Nogais, the Kuban Tatars, and the Crimean Khanate. Ayuk Khan also waged wars against the Kazakhs, conquered the Turkmens and launched campaigns against the highlanders of the North Caucasus. These campaigns underscored the strategic importance of the Kalmyk Khanate, which served as a buffer zone separating Russia and the Muslim world, while Peter focused entirely on Europe to establish himself as a European power.

This was a long and difficult expedition, which Balatri fell into thanks to his patrons, who sought to temporarily remove him from bloody scuffles with young sleeping bags, and, perhaps, from love flirting with Anna Mons, who could incur the wrath of the king on him.

As a result, he turned out to be the owner of wonderful gifts and gained an experience that his competitors could only dream of. Khan appreciated the singing of the young Italian and expressed a desire to keep him with him, and Balatri fueled his vanity with stories about how in the West in opera houses "such as Khan are treated no worse than all other monarchs (as I read in the libretto of one opera performance in Vienna)."

The story is replete with details, with the help of which the colorful camp of Ayuki is described, treats and entertainment that the guests regaled, strange forms of honors given to the khan. Flattered by Ayuka's interest in his person, the Italian singer comes to the conclusion that if at first glance the khan does not seem to be a very smart person, "then this is due to lack of education, and he was born and brought up, all other things being equal, in a civilized country, there would be much less animal in him than in you and me."

Although, describing this journey, the castrate laments that Golitsyn did not take into account that Italians are more sensitive than the "Muscovites," upon arrival at the Khan's residence, the ratio of "we" and "they" suddenly changed. Ayuka Khan is interested in Balatri and unsuccessfully asks Golitsyn to leave the young Italian to him. Now the Kalmyks appear "strange" with their hellish music ("hellish canzona"), inappropriate clothes and disgusting manners, while decency reigns in the Muscovite camp. But Muscovites and Kalmyks have something in common: a passion for "l'Acquavita" (aquavite).

During his ill-fated journey ("viaggio disastroso"), Balatri describes a desert without churches and houses, and at first suffers greatly from the heat, and on his way back to Moscow he faces the consequences of the Russian winter. Of course, it is the freezing cold that shocks the young Italian the most.

Notes