Immagini della Russia tra Oriente e Occidente nel XVI secolo: politica, religione, culture nella 'Moscovia' di Antonio Possevino

This paper focuses on the analysis of a text written by the Jesuit Father Antonio Possevino soon after his diplomatic mission (1581-1582) to the Tsar Ivan IV: the Moscovia. Composed and published in the early decades of a period of increasing knowledge of early-modern Muscovy (dating back to a brief account by Paolo Giovio’s in the 1520’s), the text became ‒ during the 40 years of its editorial history ‒ something different from what it was conceived for (a geographical and ethnographical description of a territory visited with diplomatic purposes): a collection of theological and controversial writings on the topic of the eastern Greek and Muscovite schism. A deeper analysis of some political aspects of the text, though, shows how these different parameters were somehow inextricably connected within the catholic vision of the ‘orthodox’ East.