Twice ToldPekarsky, Nauka i literatura v Rossii pri Petre Velikom, vol. 1 (1862), pp. 289 to 290: the calendar called Bruce's, and the flask of living and dead water
- Language
- Russian
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 15 October 2026
Spelling as printed (pre-1918 orthography, with the hard sign and yat). The line break at “вспо-” and “мнивъ” is joined; the page break is marked [290]. The sentence about Bruce’s money dealings that closes the passage is included in full because the paragraph does not make sense without it.
Въ Россіи напечатанъ первый календарь на 1709 г.—28 декабря 1708 года, въ 4°, гражданскимъ шрифтомъ. Въ 1709 году, вышелъ гравированный на мѣди, стѣнной календарь, извѣстный подъ именемъ брюсова. Такое названіе не совсѣмъ справедливо: въ самомъ календарѣ положительно сказано, что онъ собранъ и изданъ тщаніемъ библіотекаря Василья Кипріанова; Брюсъ же надзиралъ только за изданіемъ, что обозначалось не только на календарѣ, но и на всѣхъ изданіяхъ, выходившихъ изъ московской гражданской типографіи.
Извѣстна репутація Брюса въ Россіи XVIII столѣтія, какъ черно-книжника и астролога: авторъ настоящаго труда, живя въ дѣтствѣ въ отдаленной провинціи, и тамъ слыхалъ не мало разсказовъ о томъ. Такъ напр., легенда сохранила, что «Брюсъ, умирая, вручилъ Петру склянку съ живой и мертвой водой (замѣтимъ, что въ дѣйствительности Брюсъ умеръ десять лѣтъ послѣ кончины царя), съ тѣмъ, что если онъ пожелаетъ видѣть его ожившимъ, то велѣлъ бы вспрыснуть его трупъ этою водою. Прошло потомъ нѣсколько лѣтъ, и Петръ, вспомнивъ о завѣщанной Брюсомъ склянкѣ, [290] велѣлъ разрыть могилу его; къ ужасу присутствовавшихъ оказалось, что покойникъ лежалъ въ могилѣ, какъ живой, и у него даже отросли длинные волосы на головѣ и бородѣ и ногти на рукахъ. Царь былъ такъ пораженъ этимъ, что велѣлъ скорѣе зарыть могилу, а склянку разбилъ.» Подобная же легенда нѣсколько короче сообщена о Брюсѣ въ «Очеркѣ морскаго кадетскаго корпуса». Гдѣ искать источникъ ея? Кажется въ томъ обстоятельствѣ, что Петръ, познакомившись съ извѣстнымъ Рюйшемъ, купилъ у него подъ величайшею тайною способъ бальзамированія тѣлъ, которыя сохранялись какъ-бы живые. Брюсъ занимался астрономическими наблюденіями, часто бесѣдовалъ о томъ съ царемъ, и вотъ суевѣріе сочинило чудесную повѣсть, сохранившуюся до нынѣ.
Между-тѣмъ въ жизни Брюса не было ничего, чтобы могло хоть нѣсколько заподозрить его въ чернокнижествѣ: онъ былъ только просвѣщеннѣе многихъ изъ своихъ знатныхъ современниковъ. Къ сожалѣнію, онъ не былъ выше ихъ въ нравственномъ отношеніи: Брюсъ, какъ и другіе, бралъ подъ чужимъ именемъ подряды въ артиллерійскомъ вѣдомствѣ, гдѣ былъ начальникомъ; также бывалъ подъ судомъ за утайку казенныхъ червонцевъ — однимъ словомъ, дѣлалъ то, что можно дѣлать безъ астрологіи, магіи и волшебства.
Translation
Ours.
The first calendar in Russia was printed for the year 1709, on 28 December 1708, in quarto, in the civil type. In 1709 there came out an engraved wall calendar on copper, known by the name of Bruce’s. The name is not quite fair: the calendar itself says plainly that it was compiled and published through the diligence of the librarian Vasily Kiprianov, and Bruce only supervised the publishing, which was stated not only on the calendar but on all the publications that came out of the Moscow civil press.
Bruce’s reputation in eighteenth-century Russia as a black magician and an astrologer is well known. The author of this work, who spent his childhood in a remote province, heard quite a few stories about it there. For example, the legend has kept this: “Bruce, as he lay dying, handed Peter a flask of living and dead water (let us note that in fact Bruce died ten years after the tsar’s death), saying that if he wished to see him alive again he should have his corpse sprinkled with this water. Some years later Peter, remembering the flask Bruce had left, had his grave dug open. To the horror of those present, the dead man was lying in the grave as if alive, and even the hair on his head and in his beard had grown long, and the nails on his hands. The tsar was so struck by this that he ordered the grave filled in quickly, and he smashed the flask.” A similar legend, somewhat shorter, is told about Bruce in the “Sketch of the Naval Cadet Corps”. Where is its source to be sought? Apparently in the fact that Peter, having made the acquaintance of the famous Ruysch, bought from him, under the greatest secrecy, a method of embalming bodies, which kept them as if alive. Bruce did astronomical observations and often talked about them with the tsar, and from this superstition made up a tale of marvels that has lasted to this day.
Yet there was nothing in Bruce’s life that could give even slight grounds to suspect him of black magic: he was merely better educated than many of his noble contemporaries. Sadly, he was no better than they in morals: Bruce, like the others, took contracts in the artillery department, which he headed, under another man’s name, and also faced trial for concealing government ducats. In a word, he did what can be done without astrology, magic and sorcery.
Notes
What it is. A printed history of learning under Peter I by Petr Petrovich Pekarsky (1862), the volume on the period’s books, calendars and astronomy. Pekarsky wrote about Bruce here because the calendar had carried his name, and he used the legend to explain that name’s reputation. The passage is the earliest printed telling of the flask of living and dead water that we found, and it comes with the author’s own statement that he heard such stories as a child. It is an author’s account of what he heard, not a collected text with a named teller or place.
How far to trust it. Pekarsky reads the calendar’s own imprint (see pekarsky-1862-calendar-sheet-1709.md) and the date of the quarto calendar; we checked the imprint against the printed transcription only, not against a sheet. His statements that Bruce was tried for hiding ducats, and that he took contracts under another name, are given without a source on these pages; the RBS entry (1908) reports an inquiry into a suspected theft of state funds, a commission that found the charge sound, and Peter setting the punishment aside, with no mention of ducats or of contracts.
Our reading. “Ожившимъ” in the second paragraph could also be read “оживѣвшимъ”; the sense is the same. The text names the flask as “склянка”, rendered “flask”. Ruysch is Frederik Ruysch, the Amsterdam anatomist; Pekarsky gives only “Рюйшъ”. The “Sketch of the Naval Cadet Corps” (“Очеркъ морскаго кадетскаго корпуса”) is not identified further by Pekarsky.