Staehlin [Jacob von]
Original Anecdotes of Peter the Great, collected from the conversation of Several Persons of Distinction at Petersburgh and Moscow. J. Murray, J. Sewell, and W. Creech, 1788. 8vo, full contemporary calf, contrasting morocco lettering-piece to spine. First ed.
Von Staehlin was a teacher, author, poet and master of fireworks to the Russian court. This work is perhaps his most famous, effectively an oral history, collecting and presenting anecdotes to draw a picture of his subject, rather than present a traditional history.