Oldest Czech Maps

OLDEST CZECH MAPS Mikšovský, M. Institute of Mapping and Cartography, Czech Technical University in Prague. ABSTRACT The development of the map image of historical Czech lands in the 16th and 17th centuries. Claudianus´map of Bohemia(1518), Criginger´s map of Bohemia (1568), Aretin´s map of Bohemia (1619), Fabricius´ map of Moravia (1569), Comenius´ map of Moravia (1627), Vischer´s map of Moravia (1692), Helwig´s map of Silesia (1561). 1. INTRODUCTION The image of the contemporary territory of the Czech Republic, in particular its western part – Bohemia – which is marked by the arcs of the frontier mountains, can be identified on many ancient maps. The oldest recorded geographical report originates from the ancient Greek geographer Strabon about the year 30 b.C. This territory is on ancient maps called as Beeheimi, Boemia or Bohaim (1). These are ancient Celt forms of the later used name Bohemia. The name „Czech“ is for the western part of the Czech Republic used as far as from the 10th century, i.e. from the time of the formation of the Czech state. A little older is the name of the eastern part of the republic – Moravia. This originated at the time of the formation of the Great Moravian Empire in the 8th century and is first recorded in writing in the year 877. The third part of the Czech Republic – the Czech part of Silesia , which spreads out to the north of Moravia and to the east of Bohemia, became a part of the Czech Kingdom in the year 1348 at the reign of the Emperor Charles IV. The territory of the Czech Kingdom appears on maps of Middle Europe on the beginning of the 14th century. The first more detail sketch of it can we find e.g. on the Etzlaub´s map called „Routes to Rome, marked mile by mile in dots across the German country from one town to the next“ from the year 1500. The goal of this paper is to show autonomous maps created by cartographers of the Czech Kingdom in the 16th and 17th centuries. 2. CLAUDIANUS MAP OF BOHEMIA (1518) The oldest independantly published map of Bohemia was compiled by Nicolas Claudianus at the beginning of the 16th century. Claudianus was a physician and a follower of the Unity of Czech Brethren at Mladá Boleslav (Czech Kingdom). He was a learned and practically endowed and enterprising man. He visited several times Nuremberg, where he arranged some Czech books for printing. Claudianus´ map of Bohemia is known only by a single original print made from wood cut combined with typographical composition, which was kept at the episcopal library of Litoměřice (Czech Republic). The format of the print is 1260 x 640 mm. The print consists of emblems of countries, traditional symbols and allegories, which take two upper thirds and a map of Bohemia at scale aprox. 1:685 000, which takes the lower third (Fig.1). The original size of the map image is 460 x 550 mm. The topographic content of the map consists of 280 signs and geographical names, from that 37 Royal towns, 53 feudal towns and 59 other settlements. The towns are divided into Catholic and Utraquist ones. Furter are drawn 131 castles, mansions, monasteries and strongholds. The map contains main rivers and roads and wooded areas as well in the interior of the Czech Kingdom as in its surrounding mountains, represented by symbols Figure 1. Claudianus´map of Bohemia. Proceedings of the 21st International Cartographic Conference (ICC) Durban, South Africa, 10 – 16 August 2003 ‘Cartographic Renaissance’ Hosted by The International Cartographic Association (ICA) ISBN: 0-958-46093-0 Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies The map image is oriented to the south with some angle deformations. The first Czech version of the map was printed in Nuremberg in 1518 (Fig.2). Figure 2. The central part of the Cladianus´map. The combination of wood cut with typographical composition allowed printing of this map in various languages. They are known modifications of this map in Latin (5), German (about 20), French (6) and Italian (2). The next Czech edition of the map followed in Prague in 1554 and the original shape was used until 1679. The later editions were printed from copperplate engravings (1). A smaller map image of Bohemia, derived from this original map, appeared in Műnster´s Cosmographies since 1550. 3. CRIGINGER´ S MAP OF BOHEMIA (1568) Johann Criginger, born at Jáchymov (Czech Kingdom) in 1521, was a protestant clergyman. He studied at universities in Wittenberg, Leipzig and Tűbingen. His activities were developed in several directions, one of it was producing of maps of different countries. He compiled a more detailed map of Bohemia in 1568 (Fig.3). Figure 3. The central part of the Criginger´s map. The preserved copy of this map is an oval shape with axes 486 and 412 mm. In the corners is the map filled with engravings depicting male figures and emblems of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Upper- and Lower Lusatia. The scale of the map is approx. 1:683 500. Criginger´s map of Bohemia represents very successfully the surrounding mountains, but some hills in the inside are missing. The mountains are drawn using the hill design manner. The hydrography is more detailed than in the Claudianus´ map. Settlements are given by four kinds of symbols : towns and villages (224 objects), castles (59 objects), churches and monasteries and small settlements (1). The Criginger´s map was for a long time known only by the copy in Ortelius´s „Theatrum orbis terrarum“ from the year 1570. Its manuscript was more times used for engravings made by Jode (1584) and for the Mercator´s map of Bohemia (1585). 4. ARETIN´S MAP OF BOHEMIA (1619) Paul Aretin, born in Uherský Brod (Moravia), was the author of the third fundamental map of Bohemia, published in 1619. The format of the map engraved on copperplates was 766 x 574 mm. The topographic description distinguished between free Royal, smaller Royal and baronial towns, castles, fortresses, monasteries and small towns and villages. On the map were as well shown gold-, silver-, tin- and iron-ore mines, thermal springs and glassworks. The map furthermore featured information remarks about the best pearls in Otava river or about deposits of precious stones. In the map was plotted the Golden Track, leading between Bavaria and Prachatice and the New Track from Austria to Český Krumlov (both in Czech Kingdom). Figure 4. The central part of the Aretin´s map. Aretin´s map shows as well borders of the political division of Bohemia. The Kingdom was at this time divided into 15 regions and their names are inscribed into their areas in Czech and in German. The first edition of the map contained a register of 1157 localities with their rectangular co-ordinates in Bohemian miles (1 mile = 7,4 km), counted from the left upper corner of the map. The map scale was 1:504 000. The Aretin´s map and its copies were shown in many Dutch atlases, issued during the 17th century. 5. FABRICIUS´S MAP OF MORAVIA (1569) Paul Fabricius was born in Laubau in Upper Lusatia. He was a physician, mathematician and cartographer. He was a professor of mathemics at the University of Vienna and a skilful astronomer. The contents of the map are not uniformly distributed. Some areas have a large number of symbols and names, others are almost empty. The map contains the whole Moravia and a part of Austria. The places in the map are marked with symbols, divided into fortified and other towns, villages, castles, monasteries and fortresses. By combinations of symbols Fabricius obtained a bigger number of place categories. The map contains 532 place names, from that 347 places in Moravia. Figure 5. The central part of the Fabricius´ map. The orographical and hydrographical contents of the map is very detailed. The mountains a drawn in the hill design manner. The rivers are described by their names. The map was in the first edition printed from 6 copperplate engravings and its whole size is 946 x 846 mm. The scale of the map is 1:370 000. 6. COMENIUS´ MAP OF MORAVIA (1627) Jan Amos Comenius is one of the most famous Czechs of the 17th century. He was born on March 28th, 1592 in the village Komná in Middle Moravia. He studied in Přerov (Moravia) and later at Herborn and Heidelberg (Germany). Jan Amos Comenius dedicated his whole life to the development of Czech culture. He is world known by s works „Labyrinth of the World“, „Schola ludus“ (in Latin) and others. He has several time travelled on foot throughout Moravia and prepared many sketches, which served him for construction of a new map of Moravia. He marked on the map big and small towns, significant villages, castles, fortresses, monasteries, mountains and rivers, thermal springs, ore mines, glass works and vineyards. He corrected the location of the topography according to their distances and completed the map by Czech and German geographical names. He finished his work in 1626 and took the original copy of the map to Holland, where the map was published (Fig.6). Figure 6. The central part of the Comenius´ map The Comenius´ manuscript of the map was not preserved. We have therefore to relay on its oldest printed form from 1627 from the Visscher´s elaboration. The engraver of the map was A.Goos, the size of the engraving is 544 x 442 mm. The map scale is 1: 470 000. On the upper bottom of the map we can find four views of the Moravian town Polna, Olomouc, Znojmo and Brno.(Fig.7).

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