1636 Hondius Map of the Duchy of Lithuania and the Dniepr River

This is Henry Hondius' 1636 map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with inset maps of the course of the Dniepr River. The map encompasses Riga and Smolensk to the north, and Krakow to Kiev in the south. As such it includes parts of modern day Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. The Dniepr insets continue mapping the river from Cherkasy to the river's opening in the Black Sea. The map is based on Willem Blaeu's 1613 wall map of the same title, derived from the 'Radvilas' map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1586, the Lithuanian Prince Michael Radziwill commissioned the Polish royal cartographer Maciej Strubicz to produce a map which improved on his earlier map of Poland, Lithuania and Livonia; the resulting map would form the basis of most seventeenth century mapping of this part of the world. Using keys both in the main map and the insets, the cities are marked to indicate their religious (and hence their political) affiliations. The Dniepr maps indicate those forts and cities held by Christians and those held by Muslim 'Tatars;' the main map differentiates between cities of the Palatinates, Catholic bishoprics and Greek Orthodox bishoprics. The map reveals its 16th century naissance in its copious historical notes (with accompanying pictorial battle scenes) of important engagements, alliances and victories in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's 1579-1581 war with Muscovy.

Publication History and Census

This map was executed for inclusion in Henry Hondius Atlas, appearing first in the 1636 English edition and remaining in various language editions published by both Hondius and Jansson into the 1680s. Despite its long history in print, we only see seventeen examples of the separate map in institutional collections. An example from a French edition appears in just the National Library of Poland. Examples of various editions appear on the market from time to time.