Manuscript maps of the Baltic region of the first half of the 18th century in the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The publication gives an overview of maps and plans of the part of the Collection of manuscript maps and the Peter the Great Collection of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which relate to the Baltic region of the first half of the 18th century. The mentioned period is divided into two parts by quarters of a century, and within each part geographical and hydrographic monuments, civil construction projects and architectural drawings are considered. The division of the material into groups of monuments makes it easy to visualise the content of the presented part of the Collection, which corresponds to the main historical events of the time and directions of cultural development. Observation of the quantitative ratio of military maps and fortification plans in each period reflects, in general, the historical perspective of Russia's development in the time being considered, thanks to the peculiarities of the collection's core – the collection of Peter the Great's maps and plans from the first quarter of the 18th century and the activities of the Academy of Sciences in the second quarter of the century. Among the presented groups of monuments there are materials of foreign and original domestic works, military landscape and topographic maps and plans and fortification drawings. Attribution of some monuments is attempted, including in some cases by paper watermarks. Some stylistic peculiarities of groups of works are noted with an attempt to explain them. In general, the work may be of reference interest.