Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
16
th
Century is a golden age of very comprehensive geographical works where the maps
became quite often illustrations of the texts. The most famous is so-called
“Cosmography”
by
Sebastian Münster (1488 - 1552). In its first edition of 1544 in Basilea we can find the map of
Moscovia, as well. However, the real cartography of Russia begins from Dmitry Gerasimov
(c.1465 - c.1535), who was the Russian ambassador. He passed his observations on Moscovia
to Paolo Jovio
15
(1483 - 1552). Next, Battista Agnese (1500 - 1564) published the Jovius map
in his Venice edition of 1554 (reproduction of the map in Szykula's article, 2000).
The next important map of Russia was prepared by Baron Sigismund Herberstein (1486 -
1566). It is the result of his travels to Russia. He was an Austrian diplomat and the
messenger of the emperor Maximilian I (1459 - 1519). The map has been made in wood by
Augustin Hirschfogel in 1546, and published in 1549 in the topic by Herberstein
“Rerum
Moscoviticarum commentarii
” and it is the first comprehensive report on the Moscovia State.
Dates 1537, 1542, 1555 and 1570 are the years of subsequent editions of the map by Anton
Wied. This one has been made on basis of an information by I(van?) V(asilevich?) Liacky.
Now it is time when the Jenkinson's map should be already described from the geographical
point of view. The left-hand half of the map which has been already mentioned in this
respect is the richer one than the right. The latter is not only poorer in those physiographical
elements but generally speaking in most degree erroneous in its representation. On the other
hand it is richer in decorative components. As was already mentioned, the Ortelius
rendition is the most faithful to the original map, especially at its left hand part. Vaughan,
Earnest Vancourt (1912) was the one who very accurately analyzed Ortelius' rendition.
Obviously many other historians were engaged in analyzing the map, too, but still before
the original has been found. After the discovery of the genuine copy of Jenkinson's map we
can find the first descriptions on the relation between genuine copy and the Ortelius'
rendition: Szykula, K., (1989) in the conference topic and Baron S.H., (1993) more
comprehensive description. Next in: Szykula K. (1995), Szykula K. (2000).
Now to attempt to analyze the genuine copy in this respect, it is worth remembering some
common opinion which was expressed by many scholars, that the north-western part of the
map has been made by Jenkinson on the basis of the manuscript map by William Borough
(1558) - reproduction in Szykula's, K. (2000), south-western part on the basis of Anton
Wied's, but the most erroneous east part by Anthony Jenkinson himself. Obviously, it
would be nothing strange that Jenkinson should use the existing maps of his predecessors,
but on the other hand such an opinion is to some degree rather unjust. At first, because he
himself personally first overcame the roads so far inside Russia and as a first Englishman
reached Buchara region at the time - previously Bokhara region have been reached only by
Marco Polo. Before the map has been depicted, he has been exploring the western region of
Sarmatiis” (1517) where he paid attention to the error made by Ptolemaeus regarding the Ripheans and Hyperboreans
mountains in lower Moscovia state. However, later on Herberstein in his work (1549) identified them as Ural
mountains.
15
See Rybakov B.A.,
Novoodkrytaja karta Moskovii 1525 g.
Otečestvennye archivy, 4. pp. 3-8
