Eyewitnesses to the Phenomenon of Russian Cold: Robert Boyle and the Accounts of Early Travelers North
Journal: Quaestio Rossica
Year: 2022

This article examines the Russian cold as reflected in accounts of early travelers to the north. For his study of the phenomenon of cold in the early 1660s, Robert Boyle repurposed parts of Giles Fletcher’s travel account of Russia written seventy-seven years earlier. Inspired by Sir Francis Bacon’s work on heat, Boyle sought to understand the extremes of cold but found himself hampered by its absence in northern England. Consequently, he turned, among other sources, to the printed account of Am