17th Century Gallery

The Cossacks Reply to the Sultan (Zaporozhtsy), c1890, (1939). Creator: Il'ya Repin

The Cossacks Reply to the Sultan (Zaporozhtsy), c1890, (1939). Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey, also known as Cossacks of Saporog Are Drafting a Manifesto, 19th-century imagining of a supposed historical event of 1676, based on the legend of Cossacks sending an apparently rude and insulting reply to an ultimatum from Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire. On the right is Taras Bulba (in a white cap), the hero of Gogol's tale of the same name; on the left is Andrei, Taras Bulba's son; almost in the centre sits Ataman (Chief) Serko with a pipe in his mouth'. Ilya Repin (1844-1930) took nearly 20 years to paint the picture, for which Tsar Alexander III paid him 35, 000 rubles, at the time the greatest sum ever paid for a Russian painting. In the collection of The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia. From "The Russian State Museum". [State Art Publishers, Moscow and Leningrad, 1939]

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Feudal Map of Japan in 1615, (1903). Creator: Unknown

Feudal Map of Japan in 1615, (1903). The feudal period of Japanese history was a time when powerful families (daimyo) and military warlords (shogun) ruled Japan. Under control of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Edo period (1600-1868) was characterized by relative peace and stability. From A History of Japan during the century of early foreign intercourse (1542-1651) by James Murdoch, M.A. and Isoh Yamagata. [Kobe, Japan, 1903]

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Title Page of the Geneva Bible, 1614, (1943). Creator: Unknown

Title Page of the Geneva Bible, 1614, (1943). The "Geneva" version of the Bible is significant because it was the first mechanically printed, mass-produced Bible in English which was available directly to the general public in Britain. In Scotland, a law was passed in 1579 requiring every household of sufficient means to buy a copy. This was a complete change from the previous position of the state which made printing or publishing the Bible in anything other than Latin a crime punishable by death. Published by Robert Barker, printer to King James I, (London, 1614). From "The English Bible", by Sir Herbert Grierson. [Collins, London, 1943]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images