Editing Sigismund von Herberstein (section)

==Writing on Russia==
[[File:Moscovia.png|thumb|300px|Engraving from Herberstein's book. Ambassadors presenting gifts to the Tsar of Muscovy]]
Herberstein's knowledge of [[Slovene language|Slovene]], acquired in his youth, allowed him to communicate with Russians, as Slovene and [[Russian language|Russian]] both belong to the [[Slavic languages]]. He used this ability to question a variety of people in Russia on a wide range of topics. This gave him an insight into Russia and Russians unavailable to the few previous visitors to Russia. 

He probably wrote his first account of life in Russia between 1517 and 1527, but no copy of this survives. In 1526, he was asked to produce a formal report on his experiences in Russia, but this remained relatively unnoticed in the archives until he was able to find time to revise and expand it, which he possibly started in the 1530s.

The evidence suggests that Herberstein was an energetic and capable ethnographer. He investigated in depth both by questioning locals and by critically examining the scarce existing literature on Russia. The result was his major work, a book written in Latin titled ''[[Notes on Muscovite Affairs|Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii]]'' ("Notes on Muscovite Affairs"), published in 1549. This became the main early source of knowledge in Western Europe on Russia.

He was the first to record the spelling of ''[[tsar]]'' as ''czar'' (both spellings are meant to express the same pronunciation). Later, English and French began to move from the 'cz' spelling to the 'ts' spelling in the 19th century.<ref>for the derivation of ''tsar'' and Herberstein's contribution of ''czar'', see the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 2nd edition, entry on ''tsar''.</ref>

Herberstein also referred to a "Russian road guide" that came into his possession for geographical data on the northern [[Urals]] and [[Siberia]], which indicated that the territories were well known to the Russians at the time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Puzanov |first1=V. D. |title=Русские походы в Югру XI - XVI вв. |trans-title=Russian campaigns to Yugra in the 11th to 16th centuries |journal=История и археология |date=2014 |lang=ru |page=162}}</ref>