They think a kaiser or emperor only should be called Czar; and hence it came, that the Russian interpreters hearing their prince thus called by foreign nations, began themselves to call him emperor, and they think that the name of czar is more noble than that of king, although that is its real meaning. But if you examine all their histories and sacred scriptures, you will find everywhere that czar is put for “king”, and kessar for “emperor”. By the same mistake, the emperor of the Turks is called czar, though he has never borne any more distinguished title than that of king, viz., the ancient name of czar. Thus the European Turks who speak the Slavonic language call Constantinople Czarigrad, which means the royal city.
Some call the prince of Moscow Albus, or white. I have taken great pains to learn why he should be called the white king, since no prince of Moscow has hitherto borne that title; and, indeed, I have frequently, when occasion offered, told his counsellors themselves that we did not acknowledge him as king, but Grand Duke. Many have thought the reason of his bearing the title of king was because he had kings under his sway, but they supplied no reason for the name of Albus. My own belief is that in the same manner as they now call the Persian kisilpassa, that is, red head, on account of his red head-dress, these also are called white on account of their white garments. The Grand Duke, moreover, uses
Δοκιμιον περὶ τῆς πλησιεστάτης συγγενείας τῆς Σλαβονο-Ρωσσὶκης γλώσσης πρὸς τῆν Ελληνικην, objects to the confounding what he calls the ancient Sclavonic word Tsar, with the much more recent Latin word Cæsar, and says that the mistake has arisen from the incorrect mode adopted by Europeans of representing the Russian word Tsar’ by the ill-invented form of Czar. Reiff, on the other hand, in his Dictionnaire Russe Français, gives the word as a primitive, and describes it as expressed in Croatian by Czar and Czeszar, from the Latin Cæsar. The sentence in the original Latin is not very clear. The editor has inserted the Croatian form “czeszar” in brackets, by way of suggesting an explanation of Herberstein’s meaning, when he speaks of the last syllable of a word, which would otherwise appear to contain but one.
