Map of the lower reaches of the Dnieper of the XVII century

Map of the lower reaches of the Dnieper. First known as part of the Radziwill map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by Tomasz Makovsky in 1613, a separate print appeared in the second edition of the “Appendix Theaters A. Ortelii et Atlantis G. Mercatoris” by Willem Jansson Blau 1631.

The map consists of two connected lanes and shows the flow of the Dnieper from Cherkasy to the Black Sea. The four figured cartouches contain information about the Cossacks, the Dnieper thresholds, the names of the nine largest cities, city symbols. There are many inscriptions with information about the traditions of the Cossacks, their estates in Khortytsia and Tomakivtka, about the fortresses of Ochakov and Perekop, about the extraction of salt and many more.

The authorship of the map has not been fully explored. It was probably created during a trip by Austrian diplomat Erich Lesotho from Steblew, who traveled to Zaporizhzhia in 1594 and lived there for over a month.

The map is best googled as “Map of the Dnieper by Willem Blaeu” and, by the way, in the search results you can find many offers to buy it. It described as the original and costs 1,300 euros. I’m not a fan of the antique market, but it seems rather cheap. Some sites also offer reprints of the card for € 300-500 (!).

For those who are not inspired to spend thousands of euros, you can download and view pdf maps of Dnipro (year 1613) in excellent quality on the website of the Institute of History of NASU and compare with its later version in 1643, published in the edition “Україна на стародавніх картах. Кінець XV—перша половина XVII ст.” (“Ukraine on ancient maps. The end of the 15th – the first half of the 17th century”), p. 188-189.