Isaac Massa
Encyclopedia
Isaac Abrahamszoon Massa (baptized October 7, 1586, in Haarlem
, died 1643) was a Dutch
grain trader, traveller and diplomat, the envoy to Muscovy, author of memoirs witnessing the Time of Troubles
and the maps of Eastern Europe
and Siberia
. He was married to Beatrix van der Laen. Massa's experience in and knowledge of Muscovy transformed him into a Dutch "Kremlinologist." The Isaac Massa Foundation in Groningen aims to stimulate scientific and cultural contacts between the Russian Federation and the Netherlands.
to Haarlem
before his birth. His ancestors could have been Italian Huguenot
s who fled their homeland in the beginning of the Reformation
. The family surname was also known as Massart, Massaert.
In 1601 Isaac left Haarlem for Moscow
to assist the family trade. Isaac was 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 the 1601–1609 events presented to Stadtholder
Maurice
and reproduced in print in the nineteenth century. In 1612–1613 Massa published two articles on Russian events and the geography of the Land of Samoyeds
, accompanied with a map of Russia, in an almanac
edited by Hessel Gerritsz
. His notes on his various travels have been published in conjunction with maps by Henry Hudson
.
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 contemporary, Jacob De la Gardie
, characterized Massa as "extremely artful in learning other people's secrets").
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 the 1606 battle between Vasily Shuysky and Ivan Bolotnikov
's armies. Retrieving original muscovite maps could have been dangerous for Massa himself and fatal for his Russian sources. Massa's rendition of the Siberia
n 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
.
In 1614 Massa returned to Moscow, this time accompanied by his brothers, as an envoy of States-General of the Netherlands
to obtain an exclusive trade agreement similar to the recent Dutch-Ottoman
treaty, and to investigate the trade routes into Persia. Not only had the Dutch been keen to purchase grains but also Persian silks. These had, equally so, been exported via Archangelsk. At the time Russian people showed great interest in artillery compounds such as lead and gunpowder.
An average of thirty ships sailed each year to Archangelsk, a harbour near the White Sea
– unfortunately during 1619 a fire broke out and destroyed the city completely, thereby ruining Massa's inventory. Additionally, upon his return Massa's ship encountered a heavy storm near Lapland.
In 1623/24 Massa was called upon by the Dutch Parliament (Staten-Generaal) to become an agent for Moscovia. However, his appointment proved to be a controversial one and drew serious opposition. He then made successful efforts to gain the interest of Gustaf II Adolf of Sweden to pursue trading grains with Russia. While nourishing the relationships between Russia and Sweden, he was knighted by the Swedish King in 1625 for his arduous efforts. One year later, in 1626, he attempted to gain exclusive rights on the trading of grains out of Russia.
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. During his next voyage, in 1629, he travelled to Moscow to pave the way for his friend Elias Trip who by then had initiated a consortium. Massa indiscreetly advised Michael I of Russia and Michael's father, Filaret
(the Patriarch of Moscow) of the internal affairs of the Dutch Republic. By doing so he attempted to tarnish the reputation of his competitors and personal opponents.
Because of the ongoing war between Sweden and Poland no grain could be exported through the city of Dantzig
. One of his opponents, Klenck, himself a wealthy merchant trading in caviar
, was given Russia's permission to export ten or twelve cargo loads of rye meal. Meanwhile Trip feigned to act on behalf of the Swedish Monarchy.
In 1630 the price of grain remained extremely high due to increasing competition. Albert Burgh
tried to ensure a monopoly for the City of Amsterdam. At the same time, countries such as Sweden and England endeavoured to do the same. Russian merchants tried to curtail trading by limiting import and export exclusively via Archangelsk. For the next two decades Massa combined diplomatic service with his own business.
– solo (1626)
and with his wife, Beatrix Van Der Laen (1622); the latter is considered unique in composition for the period; the novel composition was probably Massa's own design. Massa owned a country house near Lisse
, next to his brother-in-law, Adriaen Maertensz Block
. He was the protector of Johannes Symonszoon van der Beeck, a painter from Haarlem.
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
, died 1643) was a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
grain trader, traveller and diplomat, the envoy to Muscovy, author of memoirs witnessing the Time of Troubles
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...
and the maps of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. He was married to Beatrix van der Laen. Massa's experience in and knowledge of Muscovy transformed him into a Dutch "Kremlinologist." 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 LiègeLiège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
to Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
before his birth. His ancestors could have been Italian Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
s who fled their homeland in the beginning of the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. The family surname was also known as Massart, Massaert.
In 1601 Isaac left Haarlem for Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to assist the family trade. Isaac was witness to the second half of Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov
Boris Fyodorovich Godunov was de facto regent of Russia from c. 1585 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descend into the Time of Troubles.-Early years:...
's reign that evolved into a civil war now known as the Time of Troubles
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...
. He survived the capture of Moscow by False Dmitriy I and left Russia in 1609, before the fall of tsar Vasily Shuysky
Vasili IV of Russia
Vasili IV of Russia was Tsar of Russia between 1606 and 1610 after the murder of False Dmitriy I. His reign fell during the Time of Troubles....
. Massa compiled an account of the 1601–1609 events presented to Stadtholder
Stadtholder
A Stadtholder A Stadtholder A Stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder [], "steward" or "lieutenant", literally place holder, holding someones place, possibly a calque of German Statthalter, French lieutenant, or Middle Latin locum tenens...
Maurice
Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange
Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange was sovereign Prince of Orange from 1618, on the death of his eldest half brother, Philip William, Prince of Orange,...
and reproduced in print in the nineteenth century. In 1612–1613 Massa published two articles on Russian events and the geography of the Land of Samoyeds
Samoyedic peoples
The term Samoyedic peoples is used to describe peoples speaking Samoyedic languages, which are part of the Uralic family. They are a linguistic grouping, not an ethnic or cultural one. The name derives from the obsolete term Samoyed used in Russia for some indigenous peoples of Siberia...
, accompanied with a map of Russia, in an almanac
Almanac
An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...
edited by Hessel Gerritsz
Hessel Gerritsz
Hessel Gerritsz was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. Despite strong competition, he is considered by some “unquestionably the chief Dutch cartographer of the 17th century”...
. His notes on his various travels have been published in conjunction with maps by Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
.
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
Feodor I of Russia
Fyodor I Ivanovich 1598) was the last Rurikid Tsar of Russia , son of Ivan IV and Anastasia Romanovna. In English he is sometimes called Feodor the Bellringer in consequence of his strong faith and inclination to travel the land and ring the bells at churches. However, in Russian the name...
and the real Tsarevich Dimitri
Tsarevich Dimitri
Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich, also known as Tsarevich Demetrius, Tsarevich Dimitri, Dmitry of Uglich, and Dmitry of Moscow, was a Russian tsarevich, son of Ivan the Terrible and Maria Nagaya.-Life:...
). Russian sources consider him the least biased of contemporary Western witnesses, and a very well informed one (his contemporary, Jacob De la Gardie
Jacob De la Gardie
Field Marshal and Count Jacob Pontusson De la Gardie was a statesman and a soldier of the Swedish Empire....
, characterized Massa as "extremely artful in learning other people's secrets").
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 the 1606 battle between Vasily Shuysky and Ivan Bolotnikov
Ivan Bolotnikov
Ivan Isayevich Bolotnikov was the leader of a popular uprising in Russia in 1606–1607 known as the Bolotnikov rebellion . The uprising was part of the Time of Troubles in Russia.-Biography:...
's armies. Retrieving original muscovite maps could have been dangerous for Massa himself and fatal for his Russian sources. Massa's rendition of the Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n 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
Jan Janssonius
Johannes Janssonius was a Dutch cartographer who lived and worked in Amsterdam in the 17th century....
and Willem Blaeu
Willem Blaeu
Willem Janszoon Blaeu , also abbreviated to Willem Jansz. Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker and publisher....
.
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
to obtain an exclusive trade agreement similar to the recent Dutch-Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
treaty, and to investigate the trade routes into Persia. Not only had the Dutch been keen to purchase grains but also Persian silks. These had, equally so, been exported via Archangelsk. At the time Russian people showed great interest in artillery compounds such as lead and gunpowder.
An average of thirty ships sailed each year to Archangelsk, a harbour near the White Sea
White Sea
The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
– unfortunately during 1619 a fire broke out and destroyed the city completely, thereby ruining Massa's inventory. Additionally, upon his return Massa's ship encountered a heavy storm near Lapland.
In 1623/24 Massa was called upon by the Dutch Parliament (Staten-Generaal) to become an agent for Moscovia. However, his appointment proved to be a controversial one and drew serious opposition. He then made successful efforts to gain the interest of Gustaf II Adolf of Sweden to pursue trading grains with Russia. While nourishing the relationships between Russia and Sweden, he was knighted by the Swedish King in 1625 for his arduous efforts. One year later, in 1626, he attempted to gain exclusive rights on the trading of grains out of Russia.
Massa promoted the idea of setting up a trading cartel
Cartel
A cartel is a formal agreement among competing firms. It is a formal organization of producers and manufacturers that agree to fix prices, marketing, and production. Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products...
similar to the English Muscovy Company
Muscovy Company
The Muscovy Company , was a trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint stock company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England, and became closely associated with such famous names as Henry Hudson and William Baffin...
, but internal problems in the Netherlands delayed consolidation of traders into 1628. During his next voyage, in 1629, he travelled to Moscow to pave the way for his friend Elias Trip who by then had initiated a consortium. Massa indiscreetly advised Michael I of Russia and Michael's father, Filaret
Filaret
Filaret is a male name of Greek origin, commonly used as a monastic name in the Orthodox Church, and may refer to:-People:* Patriarch Filaret , patriarch of Moscow from 1612-1633, father of Tsar Michael I of Russia...
(the Patriarch of Moscow) of the internal affairs of the Dutch Republic. By doing so he attempted to tarnish the reputation of his competitors and personal opponents.
Dantzig
- People :* Tobias Dantzig , mathematician from Latvia, father of George Dantzig* George Dantzig , American mathematician who introduced the simplex algorithm* David van Dantzig , Dutch mathematician...
. One of his opponents, Klenck, himself a wealthy merchant trading in caviar
Caviar
Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. The roe can be "fresh" or pasteurized, the latter having much less culinary and economic value....
, was given Russia's permission to export ten or twelve cargo loads of rye meal. Meanwhile Trip feigned to act on behalf of the Swedish Monarchy.
In 1630 the price of grain remained extremely high due to increasing competition. Albert Burgh
Albert Burgh
Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh was a Dutch physician who was mayor of Amsterdam and a councillor in the Admiralty of Amsterdam.-Biography:...
tried to ensure a monopoly for the City of Amsterdam. At the same time, countries such as Sweden and England endeavoured to do the same. Russian merchants tried to curtail trading by limiting import and export exclusively via Archangelsk. For the next two decades Massa combined diplomatic service with his own business.
Paintings by Frans Hals
Massa has been the subject of two portraits by Frans HalsFrans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
– solo (1626)
Portrait of Isaak Abrahamsz. Massa
Portrait of Isaak Abrahamsz. Massa is a 1626 painting by Frans Hals that is currently in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. It depicts Isaac Massa, a prosperous merchant and a close friend of Hals. Massa was the subject of an earlier work by Hals – Isaak Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van...
and with his wife, Beatrix Van Der Laen (1622); the latter is considered unique in composition for the period; the novel composition was probably Massa's own design. Massa owned a country house near Lisse
Lisse
Lisse is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 16.11 km² of which 0.41 km² is water. Its population is 21864...
, next to his brother-in-law, Adriaen Maertensz Block
Adriaen Maertensz Block
Adriaen Maertensz Block was successively captain, commander, and governor of the Ambon Island between 1614-1617, administrator of the Raad van Indië for the Kamer of the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam in Batavia. In 1627 two of his ships wrecked on the island Wight in a storm...
. He was the protector of Johannes Symonszoon van der Beeck, a painter from Haarlem.