1800 Stockdale Map of the Empire of Germany (Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic)

This is an 1800 map of eastern Austria, western Slovakia and southern Czech Republic by John Stockdale. This map covers from Voitsberg in Austria to Amschelberg in the Czech Republic and east as far as Zvolen in Slovakia. The map is highly detailed and notes towns, castles, fortified cities, fortifications, rivers, beautifully rendered mountains and a host of additional topographic features. The lower left quadrant of the map includes a legend listing the various circles of the Empire of Germany.

The map identifies Vienna, the traditional seat of the House of Habsburg and, usually, the Holy Roman Emperor. The 'circle' in the map refers to an 'imperial circle,' one of the administrative units created primarily for tax and defense purposes by the Holy Roman Empire. The Napoleonic Wars would, of course, dissolve the Holy Roman Empire and lead to the consolidation of Germany in 1871, with a separate Austria. The Circle of Austria was bordered by Swabia, Bavaria, Bohemia and Moravia to the North, to Switzerland on the west, the Venetian States, and the Adriatic, to the south, and Croatia and Hungary to the east.

This particular map is part of John Stockdale’s atlas A general map of the empire of Germany, Holland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Grisons, Italy, Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia. The atlas contained 25 plates of maps (all untitled) and 2 index maps of maps covering the Empire of Germany. This is plate X from that atlas.