alliance which had been concluded between the two monarchs, and which had been confirmed by Maximilian with an oath in the presence of the Russian deputies, and now begged that the grand-prince would do the same in his presence on his side. This ceremony was performed without demur, by the kissing of the cross.
Thurn, after having thus successfully carried out all the instructions of his court, returned to Germany on the 12th of April 1492.
The narrative of this embassy is to be found among the imperial archives of Vienna.
Respecting Georg von Thurn, the reader may consult Hormayr’s “Archiv für Geographie, Historie, Staats und Kriegskunst”. Wien, 1819; No. 47.
(29.)
Michael Snups. 1492.
In the year 1492 an Austrian embassy appeared at Moscow of altogether a novel character, namely, one professing to have for its object the advancement of knowledge and science. The archduke Sigismund, who took especial interest in collecting accounts of foreign countries and nations, despatched from Innspruck, where he then held his court, an able man to Moscow, and provided him with letters to the grand-prince from himself and from his nephew Maximilian, king of the Romans. This traveller was Michael Snups, whose name is only known to us through the Russian archives; he was charged to make himself
