Our Notes & References

A groundbreaking representation of Russian territories at the end of the reign of Peter the Great and a fundamental source on Siberia: the first, separately-published edition of this important 1730 map, in attractive condition.

The map shows Russian possessions from Livonia to the Pacific, and also parts of neighbouring countries such as Persia, India, Tibet, and Mongolia. It records physical features, from the Urals and Himalayas to the steppes and deserts of Great Tartary, as well as points of interest such as the volcanoes of Kamchatka and Great Wall of China. Of particular note is the hitherto unparalleled accuracy with which it depicts Siberia – both topography and the settlements of its native peoples.

This “new geographical description of Great Tartary” was based on over a decade of observations by the soldier and geographer Philipp Johann von Strahlenberg (1676-1747). An ethnic German from Pomerania (then under control of the Swedish Empire), Strahlenberg, who carried the surname Tabbert before his ennoblement in 170, served as a captain in Charles XII’s Russian campaign. He was taken prisoner after the defeat at Poltava in 1709 and spent thirteen years in Siberia, before being allowed to return to Sweden in 1722.

Strahlenberg’s large, detailed map is innovative in being based not primarily on those of prior cartographers, but on his own observations (including calculations of latitude) and geographic information from other sources, including Swedish, German, and Russian explorers and cartographers. Beside its pioneering focus on Siberia and Central Asia, the map, which covers the area between 50° and 185° east longitude and 32° and 75° north latitude, is remarkable for its contribution to contemporary debates on the placement of the border between Europe and Asia, as well as on the question of the existence of a Northeast Passage to the Pacific.

Our copy is on heavy paper, which distinguishes it from those printings that were included as a supplement to Strahlenberg’s great book Das Nord- und Ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia [North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia], first published in Leipzig in the same year 1730. The map was engraved by Ferdinand Hilfreich Frisch in Berlin, and also reflects the work of Strahlenberg’s fellow officer and cartographer Johan Anton von Matérn. (It was later slightly reduced and re-engraved by R.W. Seale for English editions of Strahlenberg’s book in the 1730s.)

Borders and selected topographic features have been hand-coloured at the time of publication, and the map features three descriptive cartouches. The one on the lower right includes a self-portrait of Strahlenberg. The one on the upper left is notable for the way in which its dedication “to the most serene and powerful king of the Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Frederick I” discreetly covers that portion of the map that had changed since the defeat of Frederick’s processor Charles XII in the Great Northern War (1700-21); i.e., the Swedish loss to Peter the Great of Estonia, Livonia, and Ingria.

Provenance

From the Värnanäs Manor, Sweden.

Bibliography

Bagrow, L. (Russia) II, pp. 116-120 (illustrated, fig.49); Cordier 2713; Borodaev, V. and A. Kontev. “Rukopisnye karty Sibiri plennogo Kapitan Tabberta (fon Stralenberga), Vestnik Sankt-Peterburskogo universiteta, vol. 69, no. 4 (2024), pp. 981-1001; cf. Cox I, 194 and Lowndes III, 2528.