Point on the Map: small-scale maps of Russia

The map is based on the work of Anthony Jenkinson (1529–1611), from whom the Earls of Liverpool descend. Jenkinson served in the Muscovy Company and made four trips to Russia. He was interested in Russia as potentially the shortest trade route from England to Persia and India running through the Baltic Sea, via Russian rivers and further across the Caspian. Following his voyage to Persia and Bukhara, he wrote a book and drafted a map describing his journey. The map was long believed to be lost until its only surviving copy was accidentally found in 1987 in Amsterdam; on display is an abridged version of the map published in Amsterdam by the renowned cartographer Abraham Ortelius.

Pictured in the map’s upper left corner is Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, sitting on a throne in front of a royal tent. Images depict pagan worship, troops, riders, Persian soldiers, a nomad camp, bears, and camels, and are mostly based on books by Sigismund von Herberstein and Marco Polo. The texts in the map describe Zlata Baba (Golden Woman), an idol in Yugra; a practice in polar countries to worship a red cloth hanging on a pole as a symbol of the sun; a petrified nomadic horde (the Manpupuner rock formations); religious rites of the Kyrgyz; and Timur’s tomb in Samarkand.

The description of Poland ends and description of Muscovy begins on the sheet. Muscovy is described as a vast country, whose capital Moskha or Moscow extends 14 miles in circumference. In his description of Muscovy, Münster mostly relies on the works by Maciej Miechowita. His other sources are Antonius Wied, okolnichy Ivan Lyatsky, and Sigismund von Herberstein. Muscovy is covered in forests. The map shows nomad tents, a wild ox, a fox, a walrus (at the White Sea), and a pagan worshipping an idol (in the lower Ob region).

Münster’s map of Muscovy is the first attempt to depict the East European Plain based on contemporary and more or less reliable records, as opposed to tales of classical antiquity. Münster took much of the geographic data from Wied’s map, which was made in 1537–1544 and published in 1555.

The text says that Moscow, the capital of Muscovy, was named so after the river on which it stands, and is the country’s largest city with a strong fortress. (Moscow is twice the size of Prague in Bohemia)... The Moskus River flows south into the Oka River, near the town of Kolyuny (Kolomna). The Oka flows into the Volga near Novgorod. Muscovy is quite long and wide. It stretches 100 miles from Smolensk to Moscow, and 100 miles from Moscow to Vologda. The distance from Vologda to Ustyug is 100 miles, from Ustyug to Vyatka is 100 miles, and these 400 miles is the land of the Muscovites, who speak Slavic. The country consists of many duchies (principalities)... The Principality of Moscow can field 300,000 nobles and 600,000 peasants. The Duchy of Tver can field 40,000 men.

The reverse side of the map, page 1220, includes a text on the River Don, its tributaries, as well as those of Oka and other rivers, excessive drinking habits, and abundance of honey. The page also features a wild ox.

Sheet from Geographia by Claudius Ptolemy, the posthumous edition of Giovanni Antonio Magini (translated from Latin into Italian, abridged version) called Geografia cioe Descrittione Universale della Terra (Geography, i.e., Universal Description of the Earth) with new maps added. The second edition of Ptolemy in Italian.

The 1556 edition is dedicated to Giovanni Francesco of Potenza (known as Ivan Frenchyushko in Russian sources), a papal ambassador who, together with Herberstein, mediated the armistice talks between Vasili III and King Sigismund. Giovanni was the last bishop of Skara, whose diocese* included the Swedish provinces of Västergötland and Värmland.
Since the 1549 edition of Herberstein’s Notes on Muscovy had lots of misprints, he decided to have it republished in 1551 in Basel at the printing house of Johannes Oporinus (the Latin version of the German name Johann Herbst). The revised edition had a new map of Muscovy added, which, just as the old one, was also engraved in wood — hence the reference to a “different map” in the title. This new map was later reprinted many times, including in 1556. Unlike the previous map, it shows Muscovy almost entirely covered with forests.
Compared with the 1549 edition, the geographical content of the map had some changes. For example, information on Circassians being Christians was added along with a mention of Grustina, a mythical town on the Ob River. The latter fact was borrowed by Herberstein from the Tale of the Unknown Men in the Eastern Country.

The map’s bottom left corner displays the coat of arms of Barons von Herberstein. The top contains scenes from Herberstein’s travels by sea, on horseback, in carts, and sleighs from the 1546 and 1547 prints by Augustine Hirschvogel made for Notes on Muscovite Affairs. The left and right sides depict weapons. The bottom shows a horse harness, a Muscovite, a bison and a wild ox (the text about the bison and ox is partially cut off).
The new edition was enormously popular. Already in 1556 Herberstein was complaining of not having enough copies in Vienna and asking whether the book was available in Regensburg. D. Mauch, the secretary of the Bishop of Skara, could not get his copy until 1560.

While the map in question was published to illustrate Sigismund Herberstein’s text, it is only partially based on the original drafted by Hirschvogel and Herberstein. There is no doubt that it was drawn up by Giacomo Gastaldi, and no one else. In his work, Gastaldi relied not so much on Herberstein’s information as on his own 1548 map that was premised on Paolo Giovio and Dmitry Gerasimov’s data.
The map is made in the Donis projection, with the cardinal directions indicated at the frame.
Giacomo Gastaldi (1500–1566) was a Venetian engineer, astronomer, and cartographer. He worked for the Magistrato alle Acque (Water Service), charged with protecting the Venetian Lagoon from flooding and tackling hydraulic issues; as part of his job, he created maps of the lagoon and its coast line. Since 1544, he fully devoted himself to map making. In 1548, he was first to publish a user-friendly pocket atlas. Later in the career, he switched from woodcut to copperplate printing which improved the quality of the image. Gastaldi is known as the maker of the maps decorating as frescoes the walls of the Doge’s Palace (in Sala dello Scudo and Sala delle Mappe). For his accomplishments, Gastaldi was appointed Cosmographer of the Venetian Republic and a member of the Venetian Academy of Sciences.

By and large, Gastaldi’s map matches those of Herberstein by territorial coverage. While more detailed, it is in many respects more archaic than the latter. In particular, Gastaldi’s work contained some outdated information. His 1548 map depicts the latitudinally stretching Riphean Mountains running along the coast of the Scythian Ocean, while the map on display shows them stretching westward from the Arctic Sea with White Russia located to the north of the mountain range. The same is true about the names of the seas. The Black Sea is Mare Majiore (cf. Mare Mazor); the Sea of Azov is Mare diile Zabach (cf. Palude Zabach) [the difference in terms mare and pallude is due to the fact that in antiquity, the Sea of Azov was called the Maeotian Swamp]; the Caspian Sea is Mare di Bachaw [also named in accordance with the Russian tradition the Khvalyn Sea] (cf. mar di Bacham).
Being more detailed, Gastaldi’s map does provide additional geographic information compared to Herberstein’s maps. For example, it includes the Pinega River. However, it also contains new errors: the Shelon River is combined with the Plyusna River (Siosana) and flows into Lake Chudskoye; the Tsna River flows from Lake Ilmen into the Volga River. Images outside the right and left frames include a mounted Muscovite and animals (referring to Russia as an exporter of furs).

The first work of the collection is Notes on Muscovite Affairs by Sigismund Herberstein with a map drawn up by the author. The sides of the map’s frame indicate the cardinal directions; there is a scale bar in German miles. However, the map only roughly reflects the curvature of the earth, and suggesting that it is drawn in a certain mathematical projection and scale would be a mistake.
It shows the Urals (“the Mountains called the Earth Belt”) and the Caucasus Mountains (unsigned); the Arctic Sea, the Livonian or Russian Gulf, Pontos Axeinos, the Maeotian Swamp (Sea of Azov) and the Caspian Sea.
The map lists the following lands: Muscovy, Great Novgorodia, Volodimeria, Dvina province, Permia province, Yugra — the homeland of the Hungarians, the Cheremis tribes, the Ryazan principality, the Mordovian tribes, the Siberia province, the Nogai Tartars, Tartary (in the North Caucasus), the Circassian tribes, part of Moldova, part of Lithuania, Livonia, part of Finland.
The area around Novgorod is depicted as follows: The rivers Msta, Tsna and Lovat flow into Lake Ilmen; the Volkhov flows out of Ilmen into Lake Ladoga and further into the Livonian or Russian Gulf [of the Baltic Sea] under the name of Neva. Russa, Velikiye Luki and Torzhok are marked as cities.

In general, the depiction of the river network and location of cities in Central Russia is significantly more accurate than in the previous maps of this territory. Zlata Baba is marked by a special symbol and dressed in 16th-century European clothes, holding a spear like Athena Pallas. Here is how Herberstein describes the idol: Zlata Baba or Aurea anus is an idol ... they say, or, to be more precise, they fable that the idol of Zlata Baba is a statue in the shape of an old woman holding her son on her lap, with another child also visible, who is said to be her grandson. Apparently, she has some instruments there that make a constant sound like a trumpet blast. If so, I believe the sound comes from the wind blowing on these instruments.
On the Upper Ob, the map shows Lake Kytay with Khanbaliq, the capital of Kytay, at its shore. The reference to China probably has to do with some vague ideas that by moving eastwards from the Ob you can reach China. Herberstein, however, did not realise that the Russian toponym Kytay means China. The lower left corner of the map displays the coat of arms of Barons von Herberstein.

The edition was dedicated to two aristocrats of the house of Mendoza, marquises de Mondejar: Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1503–1575) and Bernardino de Mendoza (1501–1557). Diego Hurtado, poet and historian, served as a Spanish ambassador in Venice from 1539 to 1547, where he actively cooperated with the Aldine Press, worked on building up his library, and copied and published Greek manuscripts. Bernardino, a naval commander famous for winning several victories over the Turks, occupied the positions of Viceroy of Naples and State Councilor during the reign of King Philip II of Spain. The book is an Italian translation of the first Latin edition published in 1549 in Vienna.

There is no reason to assume that the translation was made by F. Corvino since it is hard to imagine a German translating a Latin text into Italian in Venice. This assumption can only be based on a work by Fedor Adelung where he writes: “This is a rare translation by an unnamed author. Although I have seen a reference to F. Corvino in some manuscript, I cannot guarantee its accuracy given the absence of any evidence.” (Adelung, F. (1864). Critical and literary review of travellers in Russia up to 1700 and their writings (p.112). Vol. 1. St Petersburg). It is more likely that the translator was Giacomo Gastaldi, but to be on the safe side, we will say that for now, the translator’s name remains unknown.

Giacomo Gastaldi (1500–1566) was a Venetian engineer, astronomer and cartographer. He served as an engineer at the Water Service charged for protecting the Venetian Lagoon from flooding. Part of his job was to create maps of the lagoon and its coast line. Over time, he fully devoted himself to map making and was appointed “Cosmographer of the Venetian Republic” and a member of the Venetian Academy of Sciences.
In 1548, Gastaldi published Ptolemy’s Geography in Italian (originally printed in Latin by Sebastian Münster in 1540), supplementing it with his own maps of lands unknown in antiquity, including a map of Muscovy. The latter was based on a map drafted in Rome by Paolo Giovio, whose source was Dmitry Gerasimov, the ambassador of Grand Prince Vasili III to Pope Clement VII.

Gastaldi’s map differs significantly from Ptolemy’s text, according to which the main rivers of the Russian Plain take their source from the Riphean Mountains. As Paolo Giovio writes: “Volga, which used to be called Ra in ancient times, originates from the great and vast swamps known as the White Lakes. They... are the source of almost all the rivers that flow across various countries... Therefore, these swamps are... an inexhaustible source of water as opposed to the mountains, which, as witnessed by travellers, are completely absent in this country; hence, the majority... believe that the Riphean and Hyperborean mountains so much glorified by ancient authors are all but mythical. It is from these swamps that the rivers Dvina, Oka, Moskva, Volga, Tanais and Borysthenes take their origin.

Sheet from the German edition of Ortelius’s pocket atlas Epitome Theatre Orteliani, praecipuarum orbis regionum delineationes, minoribus tabulis expressas, breuioribusque declarationibus illustratas, continens (An epitome of Ortelius’s Theatre of the World, wherein the principal regions of the earth are described in small maps, with a brief description annexed to each map)

Scale in German miles. A cylindrical projection. The Beloozero text says that the Prince of Moscow brought here his treasury to keep it safe for the time of the war.
A major source of Mercator’s information on Russia was Olivier Brunel, a Dutch merchant who worked for Grigory Stroganov and helped facilitate contacts between Anika Stroganov and Johan Balak, Mercator’s informant. Boris Godunov ordered the Mercator map copied and translated into Russian.

Gerard Mercator (1512–1594), Professor at the University of Leiden. His most important work, which remained unfinished, was the Cosmography, a description of the universe, with one of its volumes containing a collection of geographical maps. A significant number of the maps, including that of Russia, remained unpublished. Mercator’s son Rumold published them in 1595 in the Atlas sive Cosmographicae Mediationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura (the Atlas, or a Cosmographic Examination of the Structure and Forms of the World). The map of Russia cum Confignis (Russia and the neighbouring lands) featured an inset of Russiae Pars Amplificata (Part of Russia Enlarged). The map on display is a reprinted copy of the inset.
Around 1604, Jodocus Hondius (1563–1612) bought the Atlas’ plates from the guardians of Rumold’s heirs (he died in 1599) and reprinted his atlas, adding new maps. Following Hondius’s death, his widow and sons Jodocus Jr (1593–1629) and Henricus (1597–1651) continued printing the Atlas.
From 1619, the Atlas was published as Hondius’s Atlas (i.e. Jodocus Jr), not Mercator’s. In 1629, the business passed to Jodocus III (1622–1655), while Mercator’s plates were bought by Blaeu.

The text on the reverse side: Russia o Moscovia (Russia or Muscovy) The title of the map placed on the shield under Russia’s coat of arms, under the royal crown, surrounded by armament. The upper left inset includes a plan of Moscow. The upper right inset, next to the scale indication, features a view of Arkhangelsk and figures of soldiers (streltsy).
Hessel Gerritsz’s map of Russia was originally printed in 1613, but the following year its copper plates were updated. It was first included in Blaeu’s Atlas in 1634, in the German edition of the Atlas’ Appendices. Later, it was printed with the Atlas Maior that was published between 1662 and 1672.

Hessel Geritszoon (1580–1632) collaborated with Willem Janszoon Blaeu. He created the map of Russia the same year as the map of Lithuania (his sources were Thomas Makovius, and Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł).
The use of Russian sources is confirmed, among other things, by the picture of an abatis (zaseka in Russian) and the text Saisec constans nemoribus desectis et vallis a Tzar Foedor Ivanowitz aggestum contra irruptiones Tartarum Crimensium. Dutch researchers believe that the sources were exclusively Russian. Following Gerritsz’s death in 1632, the map’s plate passed to Blaeu. The map was a major achievement for its time and served as a model for many Western European maps of Russia.

White Russia, or Muscovy, divided according to the lengths of kingdoms, principalities, regions and peoples, which are now in control of the Tsar of Russia known as the Grand Duke of Muscovy. [Compiled by] monsieur Nicolas Sanson, Geographer in Ordinary to the King.

Johann Baptist Homann (1663–1724), a Nuremberg engraver and map publisher, had close ties with Russia. In 1722, he was appointed Russia’s trade representative in Nuremberg. On commission from Peter I, Homann published five maps, of which the most significant was the map of the latest Russian discoveries on the Caspian Sea and in the Pacific. In 1707, Homann drafted the first version of a map of the Russian Empire that was premised on Eberhard Isbrand Ides’ map. In 1722, the map was considerably revised to include the Caspian Sea and the Kamchatka Peninsula, which were added from the map of Russian discoveries mentioned above; a copy of the empire’s map was sent to Peter I and received his approval.

The map was to be a part of the Great Atlas; Homann died in 1724 before the Atlas was published. It was printed the following year by his heirs. The map of Russia continued to be published until the middle of the 18th century.
It was the first map to depict the Russian Empire as opposed to Muscovy. Initially, Homann used the old name of the country, but changed it at the insistence Jacob Bruce. The title of the map is placed in an artistically designed cartouche, showing Emperor Peter I surrounded by allegorical figures symbolising the prosperous empire of Christian values, sciences, commerce, maritime navigation, and military prowess that he created.

Sheet 26 of Volume 4 of Atlas Historique, ou nouvelle introduction a l’Historie, a l’Chronologie & a la Geographie Ancienne & Moderne; representée dans des novelles cartes… par Mr. C.***; avec des dissertations sur l’Histoire de chaque Etat (Historical Atlas, or a new introduction to ancient and modern history, chronology and geography; represented by new maps... by Mr. S.; featuring essays on the history of each state)

Sheet 28 of Volume 4 of Atlas Historique, ou nouvelle introduction a l’Historie, a l’Chronologie & a la Geographie Ancienne & Moderne; representée dans des novelles cartes… par Mr. C.***; avec des dissertations sur l’Histoire de chaque Etat (Historical Atlas, or a new introduction to ancient and modern history, chronology and geography; represented by new maps... by Mr. S.; featuring essays on the history
of each state)

The need for a mathematically accurate map of Russia was a major priority for Peter I. He planned for this work to be accomplished by the newly founded Academy of Sciences based on topographic surveys overseen by the Senate. The actual task of drafting a general map of Russia and the first national atlas was assigned to Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, professor of astronomy at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
As it turned out, Delisle was not up for the job. Combining the surveys, many of which were of poor quality, proved to be very difficult. Delisle suggested retraining the surveyors before restarting the surveying from scratch. However, he was soon removed from the cartographic work following revelations of his attempts to send the classified maps to France. Later he would develop a version of a conic projection that was well suited for a general map of the Russian Empire and was eventually used in drafting the 1745 map. The projection currently bears his name.

With Delisle sidelined, the project to draw up a general map of the Russian.
Empire was taken over by Leonhard Euler, the head of the Geographic Department at the Academy of Sciences, Professor of Astronomy Gottfried Heinsius and Christian Nicolaus von Winsheim, astronomer and conference-secretary at the Academy. Euler’s contribution was the most significant, but in 1741 he left St Petersburg. He was followed by Heinsius in 1744. As a result, the honour of presenting the atlas to Empress Elisabeth of Russia went to Delisle, as one of the scholars at the project’s origins.

Scale in [German] miles and versts Conic projection, longitude based on Ferro Meridian. The map shows a large peninsula in the waters of today’s Bering Sea. The text on it reads: A part of America, discovered in 1741 by the Russians, fleet captain Bering and Chirikov.
Anton Friedrich Büsching (1724–1793), was a master of theology. He served as a tutor in the family of Count Lynar, the Danish Ambassador to Russia in 1749–1750, and made numerous contacts in Russia’s Protestant community. On his return to Germany, Büsching wrote a book called Neue Erdbeschreibung (New Earth Description). In 1762, he founded a Protestant school in St Petersburg. In 1767–1788, Büsching published the Magazin für die neue Historie und Geographie (Journal of New History and Geography). Many of its articles were related to Russia, for example, the translation into German of Pyotr Rychkov’s Orenburg Topography (1762), Description of Moldavia by Dimitrie Cantemir and Gerhard Friedrich Müller’s comments on cartographic activities of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Geographic Department.

When working on the map, Büsching communicated with Leonhard Euler, who was based in Berlin in 1741–1766 while remaining an honorary member of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Philip Johan Tabbert (1676–1747) was a Swedish military officer who took the name von Strahlenberg after being ennobled. Captured during the Battle of Poltava, he was sent as a war prisoner to Tobolsk. While in Tobolsk, von Strahlenberg set out to draw up a map of Siberia. A formidable task in itself, it was all the more challenging given the classified nature of cartographic information. Strahlenberg’s first hand-made map of Siberia disappeared in Tobolsk during a fire in 1715. Trying to save it, Strahlenberg threw it out of the burning house in a suitcase, which ended being stolen. The second version of the map was confiscated in 1718 by Prince Gagarin, the governor of Tobolsk. In 1723, von Strahlenberg returned to Sweden, bringing with him the third version of his manuscript map. In 1730, it was published together with a book on the history and geography of Russia and Siberia.

The map’s cartouche was rendered as a monster’s gaping jaw, symbolising captivity. It shows a map and figures of geographers: von Strahlenberg is taking measurements with a compass (on the left) and Johan Anton von Matérn, his friend who helped draft the map, is pulling a string to raise a curtain over the map (on the right). Underneath the jaw are broken chains, a symbol of von Strahlenberg’s freedom from captivity, and an inscription made across the shackles.
The title cartouche symbolises Siberia. Soaring Phemes trumpet glory as they hold the shield with the map’s title. The Arctic Ocean is shown above with whales and Russian fishermen chasing polar bears and walruses. Siberia is framed by four mountain ranges: the Caucasus, the Taurus, the Riphean Mountains (Urals) and the Imaus Mountains (Himalayas). In the Caucasus, an eagle pecks at the liver of a chained Prometheus; in the Taurus, Heracles pulls a bow; and centaurs are depicted in the Riphean and Imaus mountains. A three-headed fire-breathing dragon is shown under the shield symbolising the inferno of Tartarus, which sounds similar to Tartary.