1710 Homann Map of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia

A fine example of Johann Baptist Homann's c. 1710 map of Bohemia, the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (Silesia, Moravia, Lusatia), and nearby areas.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces from Frankfurt am Oder and Poznań in the north to the Danube River, Freistadt, and Hradisch (Uherské Hradiště) in the south, what is now the borderlands between Germany, Czechia, and Austria. Cities, towns, mountains, rivers (large and small), lakes, forests, administrative boundaries, and other features are recorded. The Vltava, Elbe, Morava, and Oder Rivers are traced prominently, while the constituent parts of Bohemia and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown are color-shaded. Place names are a combination of German, Polish, and Czech, sometimes with more than one language used for a single settlement, while territories (duchies, kingdoms, marches, etc.) are named in Latin. A decorative cartouche at top-right includes the coats of arms of Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, and Lusatia.

Bohemia and the Bohemian Crown

Aside from Bohemia itself, the other territories noted in the title and highlighted on this map are referred to by historians as Lands of the Bohemian Crown (known historically by several names in different languages, including simply České Země). Unlike many European kingdoms which enacted a personal union, nominal ownership of these lands did not reside with the person of the monarch but in monarchy itself. This seemingly minor distinction was highly significant as, when the last heir of the Jagiellonian Dynasty died in 1526, the relationship between the constituent parts of the Bohemian crown remained intact, with nobles electing the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria as the new King of Bohemia and Bohemian Lands. (As Bohemia was an electorate to the Holy Roman Empire, this solution would have seemed entirely natural and surely preferable to a disputed crown and civil war.) At this point, Bohemia and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown became a constituent part of the Habsburg monarchy. They were granted a wide degree of autonomy, though less so as time went on, especially after the failed Bohemian Revolt of 1618 - 1620 (related to the Protestant Reformation and part of the Thirty Years War). Later (in 1635), the Habsburgs lost control of Lusatia to the Electorate of Saxony.

Some of the lands seen here saw extensive and near-continuous fighting against the Ottomans in the preceding decades and centuries, but with the resounding defeat of the Ottomans in the Great Turkish War (1683 - 1699) and other contemporaneous developments, enjoyed a welcome peace (Bohemia was also the first battleground of the Thirty Years War) at the time of this map's publication. Bohemia did not become embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714). However, it did see fighting during a similar succession crisis in the 1740s (the War of the Austrian Succession), when the relative upstart Prussia successfully invaded and annexed most of Silesia.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by Johann Baptist Homann for the 1710 edition of his Neuer Atlas and represents the first edition of the map. It should be distinguished from later editions of the map where 'Ducatus' in the title is abbreviated as 'Duc.' ('Regni Bohemiae, Duc. Silesiae'). The present title was used until about 1720; most examples lack Homann's Privilege, but there are some examples with 'Ducatus' in the title and the Privilege.