%0 Journal Article
%T Prantsuse r nnumees Aubry de La Motraye ja tema 18. sajandi I poole Balti provintside kirjeldused / French traveller Aubry de La Motraye and his descriptions of Baltic provinces from the first half of the 18th century
%A MARGE RENNIT
%J £¿petatud Eesti Seltsi Aastaraamat/Yearbook of the Learned Estonian Society
%D 2011
%I ?petatud Eesti Selts
%X The article introduces Aubry de La Motraye (La Mottraye), a French traveller and author of travel books, who was one of the few to publish his travel accounts from among those who went to Russia through the Baltic region in the first half of the 18th century, and analyses his descriptions of the Baltic provinces.La Motraye was born into a family of French Huguenots in 1674 and died in Paris in 1743. In 1696 he left France, and decades of journeys took him to all European countries as well as to Asia and North Africa. In the years 1699¨C1714 he mainly stayed in Turkey, first in Constantinople and beginning from 1711 in King Charles XII¡¯s field camp in Bender. In 1715 La Motraye followed Charles XII to Sweden and from there left for England in 1720. London became his main stop. In 1725 and 1728 he travelled in France, and in 1726 undertook a journey to Russia. La Motraye¡¯s published travelogues finish with his tour of England in 1728, and this also puts an end to reliable data about his life. As his main motive for travelling, La Motraye mentioned his curiosity. However, more concealed reasons could have been related to fulfilling diplomatic tasks and gathering political information.The first and second parts of La Motraye¡¯s travelogues were published in English translation in London in 1723 and in French in The Hague in 1727. The third part appeared in print in both languages in 1732. The most valuable parts of La Motraye¡¯s descriptions of Baltic provinces are his overviews of the surroundings and his journey, which most explicitly reflect the author¡¯s immediate experience and judgments. Surveys of local people¡¯s poor living conditions and deliberations about the reasons behind it are also interesting. The descriptions of towns are rather superficial and fragmentary. It is difficult to distinguish the information collected by the author himself from that obtained from other publications. The author persistence in describing places of minor importance on his way.Aubry de La Motraye¡¯s descriptions of Baltic provinces are valuable and exceptional, considering their profoundness and the time of writing. No travelogue equal in value can be mentioned from the first half of the 18th century.
%K De La Motraye
%K Aubry
%K reisikirjad
%K travel accounts
%K reisid
%K travels
%K kirjanikud
%K writers
%K Balti kubermangud
%K Baltic provinces
%K 18. saj. 1. pool
%K first half of the 18th century
%U http://www.ut.ee/OES/wp-content/uploads/Rennit.pdf