Maps of Peter the Great's Time
The Petrine era's cartographic material is represented by three types of maps.
- Charts of Water Areas and Adjacent Coastal Areas.
- Maps of the Newly Acquired Territories.
- Plans of Individual Battles (See the section «Maps of the Northern War»).
Charts of Water Areas and Adjacent Coastal Areas
Azov and Black Seas
Mapping of the seas is an important milestone in the history of Russian cartography. The first instrumental surveys in Russia were based exactly on hydrographic studies. They were connected during the Azov campaigns of Peter I:
- 1696 – survey and description of the Voronezh river from the city of Voronezh to the point of its confluence into the Don and further along the Don to Korotoyak;
- 1699 – hydrographic and survey work on the Don River;
- 1699-1700 – оsurvey and description of the southern coast of Crimea during the embassy of E. Ukraintsev in Turkey.
First Russian Navigational Atlas.
It was the first Russian navigational atlas to made not from foreign materials, but on the basis of a survey conducted under the leadership of Admiral Cornelius Cruys. Peter I also took part in the work.
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The map of the eastern part of the Sea of Azov, the Kerch Strait and parts of the Black Sea was compiled from measurements and surveys performed in 1699 with the participation of Peter I.
It is the first printed sea map to be produced from Russian materials.
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The engraving is produced from a picture made by Christian Ott by order of Peter I in 1700.
Christian Ott was the first captain's mate on the ship of the Ambassador E. Ukraintsev. He surveyed the Bosporus, drew a profile of the coast and compiled a map of the Black Sea in Russian and Dutch in 1700. His handwritten map served as the material for creating a map of the eastern part of the Azov Sea.
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White Sea
View of Arkhangelsk on the map «Tabula Russiae…»
Electronic resource
The map of the mouths of the Northern Dvina River is one of the first dated maps engraved and published by the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow. It is was re-engraved with changes in the cartouches and slight changes in the inscriptions from the edition: J. van Keulen «Nieuwe Lichtende Zee-Fakkel», [1681-1684].
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Map of the northern part of the White Sea was re-engraved with changes in the cartouches and slight changes in the inscriptions from the edition: J. van Keulen «Nieuwe Lichtende Zee-Fakkel» [1681-1684]. Some of the place names from the Dutch map were transliterated, for example "Svetenius" instead of "Saint Nose". The map partially overlaps with the map «Map of the White Sea with Adjacent Territories…», somewhat different in scale.
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Map of the White Sea with adjacent territories. It is was re-engraved with changes in the cartouches and slight changes in the inscriptions from the edition: J. van Keulen «Nieuwe Lichtende Zee-Fakkel» [1681-1684]. The map partially overlaps with the map «Map of the Northern Part of the White Sea», somewhat different in scale.
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Baltic Sea
At first, Russian maps of the Baltic Sea were compiled from information obtained from Swedish and Dutch sources because the first Russian hydrographic surveys were not large-scale and could not meet the needs of the fleet.
Map of the Eastern Part of the Gulf of Finland is one of the first Russian nautical charts. It was drawn from Swedish sources and was engraved by Pieter Pickaerdt at a mobile engraving workshop that was established by order of Peter I to quickly give display of the military operations during the Northern War. It is one of the first Russian printed maps to depict the newly founded St. Petersburg.
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It includes supplementary maps: The Map of thе Northern Country (the Gulf of Bothnia); [Eastern Part of the Gulf of Finland]; [Lake Ladoga]. The New Map of the Part of the Baltic Sea is one of the first Russian nautical charts. It was drawn from Swedish sources and was engraved by Pieter Pickaerdt at a mobile engraving workshop that was established by order of Peter I to quickly give display of the military operations during the Northern War. It is one of the first Russian printed maps to depict the newly founded St. Petersburg.
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The map of the Eastern Part of the Baltic Sea with the Western Part of the Gulf of Finland includes also the northern part of the Gulf of Riga and the islands of Dago (modern Hiiumaa) and Ezel (morden Saaremaa).
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It includes supplementary maps: [Paldiski Bay; Prangli Island; Island of Somor].
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The cartography department holds an atlas, published in 1719. The title page of the atlas has Pieter Pickaerdt's plate with the view of Petersburg.
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Maps of the Newly Acquired Territories
This type of the Petrine era's maps is represented by a relatively small number of overview maps that do not include significant detail.
Electronic resource
The drawing to the engraving was produced in 1703–1704, immediately after the conquest of Ingermanlandia (Ingria, Izhora land) during the Northern War, in the mobile engraving workshop from Swedish sources with the usage of old place names. Adriaen Schoonebeck began to engrave the map in four sheets in Ganuary 1705. After his death, the work was finished by Pieter Pickaerdt and his Russian pupils. According to some available information, because of the expectation of the final establishment of the border with Sweden, the map was printed only in 1724, after the conclusion of the Nystad Peace.
The Maps Department has an incomplete copy of the original map (2 sheets out of 4) and a reduced reproduction.
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The map covers the territories of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, parts of the Moscow Principality and other adjacent states. The map borrowed a drawng of the coast of the Baltic Sea and parts of the charts of water bodies from a map from K. Allard's Atlas (late 17th century). Allard, in his turn, used an image from the map of G. Levasser de Boplan (1650-1651).
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The map of the border between Russia and Sweden established by the Peace Treaty of Nystad of 1721 was produced from the surveys of A. Kleshnin, one of the best geodesists of Peter's time, and A. Zhikhmanov. The first 500 copies of the map were printed in 1724 in Saint-Petersburg at the request of the Senate "for sale to the people". All the surviving copies of the Kirilov Atlas are opened with this map, including an item kept in the Mapps Department of the National Library of Russia.
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