Massa, Isaac

Born 1587 in Haarlem, the Netherlands; died after May 1635 either there or in Lisse. Dutch merchant and diplomatic resident in Russia from 1614 to 1634.

Massa lived in Moscow from 1601 to 1609 and from 1612 to 1634. He learned Russian and collected much material on Russian geography and on the history of Russia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Around 1611 he wrote an essay on events in Russia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries that is an important source for the history of the peasant war led by I. I. Bolotnikov, as well as for other events of 1601-09. His articles devoted to the history and geography of Siberia were among the first works on Siberia in Western European literature. He published a number of maps of Russia and some of its regions.