Alexander  Wilbrecht’s  Reverence

Karta Okrujnosti St Peterburga. With compass card and a very fine title-cartouche, embedded in a shore landscape, with the double eagle with laurel-twig in the beak and laurel-wreath resp. and the tsar-crown floating between them. Surrounding map engraved by T. Charitonov + A(l?) Czavirskov (?). (1792 or earlier.) 46.6 x 57.5 cm.

Rarissimum  of  Russian  cartography

as the Russian cartographer Wilbrecht, unknown in his living conditions, is of outstanding rarity for himself. In Tooley’s Dictionary of 1979 he figurates with a 1792 French version of this Petersburg map, published surely later, along with another of 1787 on the Pacific discoveries and the Rossijskoj Atlas of 1792 for which the Petersburg map should be worked.

Worked very instructively with  river  and  road  nets  of which the finishing trains are named individually, i. a. that to Moscow. Among the dams and canals of especially interest the  Ladoga  Canal  as the most important of the region,

which  had  been  begun  under  Peter  the  Great  in  1719

and was finished in 1732 by Burchard Christoph von Münnich (1683-1767), the famous German general and hydraulic engineer living in Russia since 1721. For Münnich see also the map 12,020 below.

Complete description per 14,676 on request

Peter the Great in West Europe. The Great Legation 1697-1698. Catalogue of the (extended) 18-week exhibition “Treasures from the Kremlin – Peter the Great in West Europe” in the Übersee-Museum Bremen 1991. 162 items. Ed. by Wolfgang Griep + Frauke Krahé. 1991. Sm. 4to. 192 pp. With countless, several coloured, illustrations. Orig. boards with colour ills. on both sides. – In German.
Offer no. 14,508 / EUR  23. (c. US$ 32.) + shipping

Incunables – St. Petersburg – Gorfunkel, A. X. (Catalogue of the Incunables of the Leningrad University.) 84 items. Leningrad 1967. Sm. 4to. 43 pp., 1 l. With 19 full-page ills. on plts. Orig. cloth.

In Russian, but short titles, concordance, indices, and bibliography in Latin characters. – Title in blue and black.
Offer no. 11,563 / EUR  33. (c. US$ 46.) + shipping

De L’Isle – Atlas Rvssicvs … Vastissimvm Imperivm Rvssicvm cum adiacentibvs Regionibvs. Under the supervision of Leonhard Euler and Gottfried Heinsius ed. by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Petersburg. Petersburg, the author, 1745. Large folio. 16 pp. With

(c. 49-50 x 56 and 56.5 x 98 cm resp.) after Joseph Nicolas De L’Isle (1688 Paris 1768) and others. Marbled contemp. h. calf with back plate, leather edges, and marbled boards. Paled marbled edges.

Literature

Phillips 4060 (together with additional war maps); Nitsche-Stender 141; Lexikon der Kartographie 688; Goldenberg + Postnikov, Development of Mapping Methods in Russia in the 18^th century, in IMAGO MUNDI XXXVII, 63-80; Teleki, Atlas zur Geschichte der Kartographie der japanischen Inseln pl. 17,1 (pl. 19 of the atlas); Niemeyer, Rußlands Aufbruch in die Moderne – Peter der Große und die Entwicklung der russischen Kartographie, Bonn 1991, 5 + illustrations.

Exhibition

(Treasures from the Kremlin – Peter the Great in Western Europe.) Bremen, Übersee-Museum, 1991 (18 weeks incl. extension). – Catalogue no. 158 (uncoloured copy).

Title + text – description of the maps regarding bordering, origin, accuracy and execution of surveying, transcription of the Russian alphabet; partly detailed Russian explanations of words; rich signs and symbols up to salterns + hot springs, this by the way engraved – in Latin + French. – The colours of deep quality.

Asked for was a really new map-making using astronomically set fixed-points. At the top of the western astronomers and geographers called to Russia was J. N. Delisle who worked there from 1725-47 and whose astronomical school founded at the Academy produced some high reputed Russian astronomers while his work for the atlas of 1745 – preceded in 1734 by the not so important one of Ivan Kirilov – suffered by friction. And “against the ban he copied all Russian maps and sent them secretly to Paris where they now form ( – but without the General Map – ) a valuable collection” (Bagrow-Skelton). He was simply reputed as “the French expert of Russia” (Galkovich). But he also was reproached for working too slow. A lack of topicality caused by this and poor accuracy were the reasons for him that he did not liked to be named with the atlas. Just as M. V. Lomonosov criticized .

Assigned to Delisle as assistant had been the young Gottfried Heinsius, extraordinary professor of astronomy and member of the Academy working in Petersburg from 1736 to 1745. See ADB XI, 656.

Contrary to the detailed maps 14 ff. of the atlas – the Asian part eastern of the rivers Irtysch/Ob, but also reaching to the Petschora-delta –the 13 maps dealing with the European part concipated in a much larger scale and decorated – just so contrary to the Asian ones with only a title border – with rich figurative-instructive title-cartouches. These in black and white as known also from the Atlas of the Great Elector. It has to remain undecided whether this is caused by too hasty works for publishing the atlas soon – as criticized by Delisle – or by a minor economical importance.

plotted on the Volga district map. First the version as sketched in 1697 during a discussion between Leibniz and the Russian ambassador Golovin.

Of further extraordinary interest for the development of cartography

stretching between northern Japan – the northern ends of which on the lower map border – and Kamchatka. The disputed islands correctly set off against the other and situated nearer to Japan. Thus without the obscure Staaten Island, Terre de la Compagnie and Terre de Jean da Gama, which were to be found in the maps by Kirilov and Haas, but also even in much later ones.

For  the  cartographical  rank  of  the  atlas 

see Goldenberg-Postnikov’s résumé :

“ Atlasses, maps and large scale plans become the principal basis for the development of topographic maps. They remain as remarkable monuments of the history of Russian cartography created by the toilers of field cartography … From the point of view of studying the maps of Russia of the 18^th century as historico-geographical sources, the cartographic materials of general land survey are undoubtedly the most abundant and valuable sources in spite of their relative imperfections. ”

The  area  comprised 

corresponding with the borders of the reign of Elisabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter (1709-62, empress since 1741). In the east up to Bering Strait with the Kuriles and northern  Japan,  in the SE the River Amur district later acquired by Alexander II (emperor since 1855) down to today’s Vladivostok. Further to the sources of Kerulen, Selenga + Irtysch – Caspian southern banks – River Arax – then crossing the Black Sea on the line Trapesunt – Constanca – westernly up to Kiew – Memel – Helsinki with parts of Finland – Norwegian border area . In the north up to c. 85° northern latitude.

Complete description per 14,977 on request

Russian Empire in Europe, The. / NW Sheet. Map by Frdr. Wilhelm Streit (d. 1839). Steel engraving coloured in outline. (1836.) 28.4 x 22.8 cm.

The first sheet with the title of Streit’s 4-sheet map of Russia. – The coast from Stettin. – With the Baltic Provinces + Finland , still with Gothenburg . Shown finely St. Petersburg along with the Ladoga Canal. – With the  postal  routes .
Offer no. 7,442 / EUR  76. (c. US$ 106.) + shipping

Truscot(t) (Trescot), Ivan Fomic (1721-1786) + Jakob F. Schmidt. Tabula Geographica Generalis Imperii Russici. With

a second large cartouche, overflown by the Russian eagle with laurel-wreath, sceptre and trumpet, with Mercury and Athena

with  a  map  of  the  empire  in  front  of  the  silhouette  of  Petersburg

and with a three-master, surrounded with medley war material; and with a landscape-cartouche with rocky steppe, obelisk and double miles indicator. Coloured Russia map 1 : 7.5 million printed from 3 plts. Augsburg, Tobias Conrad Lotter (1717-1777), 1784. 64.3 x 140 cm.

Literature

Harms, Cat. van de Kaartencollectie Moll, 19; Lexikon zur Geschichte der Kartographie, Vienna 1986, 688 f.; Bagrow, A few remarks on maps of the Amur, the Tartar Strait and Sakhalin, in IMAGO MUNDI XII, 127-136.

List of Unusual Items that have come up for Sale – compiled by the British Library – in IMAGO MUNDI XLIIII, 140/1 (a former copy sold here into an important German public collection after it had vagabondized on three places of the German market in the 70s).

Unknown to Grenacher, Guide to the cartographic history of the imperial city of Augsburg, in I.M. XXII, 85 ff., and Phillips, Atlasses + Maps of America. – In the British Library only the original edition ed. by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburg in 1776. Lotter’s map of Russia of 1788, mentioned not as being printed from more than one plate, in Tooley’s Dictionary probably a new edition of the one listed by Grenacher as published in 1770 (Phillips 3513, 26 as ca. 1772).

on whose two authors is known next to nothing despite of some maps – besides the present general several regional maps – composed together.

“ Based on the county maps of the surveyers and other material (originating especially from expeditions and legations) submitted to the senate, the highest administrative body of the empire, several general maps of the Russian state were produced subsequently, which in their turn served as sources for maps of Russia drawn in other European countries: as first in 1734 the Imperii Russici Tabula Generalis … (ca. 1 : 11.7 mill.) by I. Kirilov; followed in 1745 by the Mappa Generalis Totius Imperii Russici (ca. 1 : 8.9 mill.) in the Atlas Russicus … (see above), 1776 the ‘Tabula Geographica Generalis Imperii Russici’ (ca. 1 : 7.5 mill.) by I. F. Truscot(t) (Trescot) u. J. F. Schmidt … ”

(Lexikon zur Geschichte der Kartographie).

Remarkable, too, the increasingly larger scale of these maps as outer sign of the growing completion of land surveying with the advance of the 18^th century. And the present one together also

in  regard  of  the  size  by  far  the  most  imperial .

The rich cartouche decoration – left black and white like in many old coloured map works and also known from the Atlas of the Great Elector – completely in the sign of the policy persued by Catherine the Great (Stettin 1729 – 1796, daughter of Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst and since 1762 czarina of the house Holstein-Gottorp) in the tradition of Peter the Great.

So the complete ignoring of the Volga-Don-Canal in all versions and variants of representation still omnipresent in the first half of the 18^th century. Here, not least after a futile attempt already under Peter’s Ägide, the interest had, as obviously impracticable, ceased.

Greatest  attention , however , deserve

the Asian northeastern coast and the Kuriles. Compared with the preceding maps by Kirilov and the Atlas Russicus only Sakhalin and the coast running to the south appear in the known form unchanged since Kirilov’s map of 1734.

But only somewhat more northerly the changes start with the Szantar Islands, hitherto drawn too large, now appearing in correct size in the bay of the Sea of Ochotsk also now extending sharply to the west. Kamchatka iss significantly stretched and thus nearly adjusted to its true shape, the Kuriles here supposedly marked for the first time with this name as an archipelago, otherwise though – also in regard of the disputed group situated nearer to Japan – corresponding to the general map of the Atlas Russicus and the respective atlas maps. Only the farthest northern tip of Japan here not in the map image anymore. Terre de la Compagnie and da Gama Land found in the Kirilov and Haas maps of 1734 and 1739/43 resp., but also still in Lattré’s map of Asia of about 1770 here left supposedly finally to the memory of the great time of sometimes only vague discoveries and dissolved into a representation corresponding with nature.

Eye-catching  as  cartographic  progress

the severe truncation of the Chukotsk Peninsula leading to the northwest compared with the previous maps still showing Cape Szalaginskoi (Cape Shelagskiy), the northern peninsula, as reaching sharply to the northeast. Although the coast is still drawn too irregular the representation resembles today’s image.

In deviation to both Kirilov’s map as, too, the detail map no. 18 of the Atlas Russicus the equally named islands north off Cape Szalaginskoi missing. This analogue to the general map of the atlas probably drawn too hastily and although the position of the islands was already clarified by Homann’s guiding map of 1725. Also still incorrect as by far too small and too close to the Asian continent St. Lawrence Island today belonging to America.

Now correct, however, the representation of the Bear Islands situated before the mouth of River Kolyma, here for the first time as group of small islands and with this designation. Entered already in the Kirilov map – as, too, in Broedelet’s 1743 edition of the Haas map of 1739 – as one large island while still missing in all other maps.

Of  highest  importance

the inclusion of the southern bow of the Aleutian Islands from the Commander Islands with Bering Island before Kamchatka up to the main group on the eastern side of the exit of the Bering Sea and, since going beyond Unalaska, practically reaching just before the southern tip of Alaska Peninsula.

Cartographic  novelty , too ,

the inlet designated as Matocznik Szar (Matochkin Strait) parting Novaya Zemlya as to be found in probably no map before – also not in Rigobert Bonne’s map of Russia, published 1771 by Lattré in Paris. Otherwise with designation of the known capes and bays, among these Cape  Nassau,  Asia’s north cape and today Cape Mauritius, as well as the Ice Harbour where Willem Barents (mid 16^th cent. – Novaya Zemlya 1697) spent the winter 1696/97 during his second expedition.

Complete description per 12,250 on request

St. Petersburg – The Hermitage Catalogue of Western European Painting. 16 vols. 1983 ff. Large 4to. With numerous illustrations. Black orig. cloth giltly stamped with serial + title on front cover and back.

The  first  scientific  catalogue

of the Hermitage, built by Catherine the Great (1729-1796, ruled since 1762) including also the gallery of Peter the Great and extended under Nicolai I by Klenze from 1840 to 1850/52.

Netherlandish + French (4 vols. in each case) , Italian (3) , German (2) , British + Spanish and miscellanious (1 in each case).

Lotter, Tobias Conrad (1717 Augsburg 1777). Carte Geographique representant le Théatre de la Guerre … (Map of the Ukraine, Crimea and South Russia in respect of the war between the Russians, Turks and the confederated Poles.) With large figurative title-cartouche (18.5 x 22 cm), compass card, double miles indicator, and many annotations to the military events of 1736-39 and 1769-74 resp. Coloured joined four-sheet-map of ca. 1 : 1.59 million engraved by Georg Friedrich + Gustav Conrad Lotter in Augsburg. (1774.) 49.5-72 x 22.4-154 cm.

Stopp/Langel p. 149. – Not in the Library of Congress and, particularly, unknown to Grenacher, Guide to the cartographic history of the imperial city of Augsburg, in Imago Mundi XXII, 85 ff. – In the British Library only the edition of 1769, mentioned also by Tooley, considering only the events of the first year of the first war between Russia and Turkey (1768-74). Unknown to literature again a later issue published 1783 relating to the conquest of the Crimea and surrounding by Potemkin, which was traded in the 70s.

Relating to Münnich see Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie XXIII, 19 ff., Meyer’s Konvers.-Lex., 4th ed., XI, 885 f., and Tooley, Dictionary, 454. – Large figurative-typographic watermarks. – On the left trimmed on or just inside the wide platemark. Several mostly only tiny repaired tears in the wide margins. There also several pinhead-small wormholes and, declining, in the outer parts of the map itself, too. Verso numbered by old hand. – The three-sheet-main-map supplemented by a small side-map (23.9 x 22.5 cm) up to Byzantium on the lower left. – The cartouche, but not the compass card, uncoloured as widely timely and known also from the Atlas of the Great Elector. But above all it is an  early  impression  with still many construction lines .

And nearly all noted events closely associated with the name of

and active in almost all military conflicts in Europe till 1739. 1728 he was appointed Russian count by Peter II and 1741 Imperial count by Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony. 1740 he helped Anna Leopoldowna, wife of Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Lüneburg, to become czarina, but already short time later he was banished to Siberia by Elisabeth Petrowna, daughter Peter’s the Great and successor of Anna by coup d’état in December 1741. Only Peter III rehabilitated him when he became czar in 1762. And Catherine the Great, successor of Peter, said about him :

Simultaneous with his military activities Münnich was a great hydro engineer since he became a Princly Frisian chief engineer for dyke and sluice matters in 1705. After his joining of Russian service he “took over the realization of a work, which

(Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie).

Already in 1728 parts of the canal were navigable and four years later all its 110 km and 32 sluices were ready for traffic. 1762 destined for chairman of seaports and canals by Catherine II Münnich devoted his last years to a great project, the building of the Baltic harbour Rogerwik near Reval, formerly projected already by Peter the Great.

Died without heirs his money – now 100 million pound – is waiting for such fortunate one in the Bank of England till today.

The renewed mark of

Leibniz’  version  of  a  Wolga-Don-Canal

as a junction between the side-rivers Ilovlya and Kamyshenka had been made surely in respect of Münnich’s guiding hydraulic activities. Then on other maps of these years such memory of the old experiences (see ills. per 14,977 above), at last under Peter the Great, missing. Indeed, the canal has been realized in a version older than that of Leibniz only in 1952.

All in all, regarding its thematic provenance, rarity, and size the map is

a  cartographic  trouvaille  par  excellence .

Offer no. 12,020

(Wiebeking, Karl Friedrich von, Wollin 1762 – Munich 1842). (The Course of the River Elbe from Grodenstack over Cuxhaven till northwest of Kugelbake.) With

6  large  detail  representations

to the reinforcement of the foreland and threefold scale. Engraving printed from 2 plates. 44.4 x 72 cm.

Upper and lower platemark ca. 4.5 cm wide each. – Barely noticeable fold at the left image margin. – Lateral margins uncut. The right margin slightly wavy due to the mounting and with traces of box pleats. Isolated little tears in the paper margin backed acid-freely.

Outstanding  special  map , beside of the accurate cartographic representation of the course of the several dykes – of Steinmarne , old + new (of 1741) sea dike of Döse as well as old + new dike of Neuenfelde together with the sluiceways , Lahnungen (double rows of piles for sediment collection) , mud flats and forelands – of special interest the

so the profile of the stone boxes in the old state – stone boxes in the newest state – profile of the brick embankment – the parabolic work – the sine embankment – stone dosage at the dike of Neufeld .

Their respective usage for the protection of the foreland as well as the pile dams in the mud flats especially noted in the map. Beyond this with beacons, lights and landmarks as windmills and houses. Among the latter particularly designated Ritzebüttel Castle – at the lower margin with meridian and indicated parallel of latitude referring to it – and the quarantine house at the Kugelbake. Mud flats, sands, pastures and marsh with respective symbols.

Wiebeking , educated technically as versatile as furthermore historically interested, found his first employment in Dusseldorf in 1788 as hydraulic engineer of the grand duchy Berg, but changed soon into Hessian, Austrian and finally Bavarian service. Already in 1818 he left everyday business to dedicate himself completely to his publications. However,

“ the priority of his activity (was) doubtless the field of hydraulic engineering … (He) demanded the creation of public hydro-technical research institutes … A lot of time was devoted by W. to cartography … ”

(Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie LV, 659 ff.). – And Zögner, Kartenschätze, p. 157 :

“ … one of the most able and productive personage of map affairs of his time and together known water and road architect . ”

Important works are i. a. the construction of a new harbour for Lindau (Lake of Constance) and the first larger correction of the River Isar near Munich. Besides expert opinions for flood protection and construction of two harbours in St. Petersburg, for the enhancement of the harbour conditions of Venice, Trieste and Nieuwendiep in Holland. He rejected, however, the construction of the Louis Channel connecting the Rhine with the Danube for his thorough conviction and in the discernment of the advantage of the upcoming railways.

Present map now the rare opportunity for the visualization of the highly interesting construction of modern dykes

in  the  district  of  Hamburg , joined  to  St. Petersburg  as  twin  town  today .

Offer no. 12,211 / EUR  808. / export price EUR  768. (c. US$ 1073.) + shipping

Saint Petersburg – Wolf Catcher, Russian. In front large to the left before a lumber yard to the right with laborer scenery at the bank of a wide river enlivened by a sailboat + rowing-boats with the silhouette of a municipal district vis-à-vis dominated by a dome cathedral and a stone-bridge (Saint Petersburg with Peter and Paul Cathedral and Petersburg Bridge?). Steel engraving by Johann Siebert (b. 1804, 1822/28 pupil of the Art School, still active in 1846, all Nuremberg) after S. Cooper (the animal painter Thomas Sidney C.?, Canterbury 1803 – Vernon Holme near C. 1902). Ca. 1835. Inscribed: XXV / S. Cooper pinx. / I. Siebert sc. Nbg., otherwise as before in German along with the address of the Art Establishment of the Bibliographical Institute. 16.9 x 20.3 cm.

With the full platemark not measuring with, as rather more seldom for steel engravings, and left-sided stitch-margin.
Offer no. 14,823 / EUR  79. (c. US$ 110.) + shipping

From  both  towns  by  the  way , Petersburg  as  Hamburg ,

“ Beautiful Rugendas colour print arrived! Thanks very much for keeping me informed. Best regards ”

(Mr. J. R. L., June 11, 2004)