Radziwiłł map
Valued for its accuracy and intricate detail, the map was modified and republished many times by various cartographers until the First partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772.
The earliest maps of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania depict it together with other regions of Eastern or Northern Europe, particularly with Russia or Poland.
[4] The map was used as the data source for many other maps of Eastern Europe, including maps by Henricus Hondius II (c. 1633),[9] Johann Pleitner (1634), Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan (1651), Nicolas Sanson (1655), Cornelis Visscher (1685), Carel Allard [nl] (1697), Frederik de Wit (c. 1710),[10][11] Jan Nieprzecki [Wikidata] (1749), Johan Kanter [Wikidata] (1770), Giovanni Antonio Rizzi Zannoni [it] (1772),[10] Tobias Conrad Lotter [de] (1780).
A surviving letter from 1599 by Maciej Strubicz [pl] shows that he wanted to hire a local goldsmith Joannes Kolner in Gdańsk to engrave the map.
The 1613 map was engraved by Hessel Gerritsz on four copperplates and published by the leading cartographer Willem Jansz Blaeu in Amsterdam in 1613.
[19] A second edition from the same year corrected this by cutting off the copperplates with the diagram of the lower Dnieper – thus the entire map was now on six copper plates.
[7] The map shows borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its administrative subdivisions (voivodeships and powiats).
[25] The territory of Ukraine (also labeled as Outer Volhynia or Lower Dnieper) spanned from Kiev in the north to Korsun in the south.
[29] This was a result of increased grain trade with western Europe and the need for more precise river maps for navigation.
[35] The settlements are divided into nine categories based on number of residents and their administrative (royal, church, or nobility) jurisdiction.
[32] The settlements were indicated not only with dots for geographical accuracy but also with miniature depictions of their most prominent architectural features that could serve as visual identification for a traveler.
[36] The dense network of settlements served not only the practical purpose but was also as a visual repudiation of a frequent description of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a sparsely inhabited land of great forests and swamps.
Some notes addressed difficulties in obtaining accurate measurements,[40] others reinforced Lithuanian positions in the various territorial disputes with Poland, Grand Duchy of Moscow, or the Crimean Khanate.
[37] The map also depicted the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as they were prior to the Union of Lublin (1569) and after – a reflection of the continued dissatisfaction among the Lithuanian nobility with the territorial transfers to Poland.
[41] The map also highlighted Lithuanian victories against the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the battles of Orsha (1514), Ula (1564), and Polotsk (1579).
[40] A miniature depicted groups of horsemen fighting each other between Vitebsk and Smolensk with an explanation that these are Lithuanians stopping Russian attacks.
[32] The map includes a two-part diagram of the lower Dnieper river from Cherkasy to its mouth at the Black Sea.
[32] According to the explanation given on the map, the diagram was included to showcase the third longest river in Europe and historical borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
[32] The diagram has plentiful of notes about the region and its history, including description of the Dnieper Rapids and Khortytsia, the Scythians and Cossacks, and various destroyed cities and fortresses.
[32] Overall, the map depicts Cossacks as warriors protecting the borders of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against the attacks and slave raids of the Crimean Khanate.
[48] The text worked in tandem with the map to combat the stereotype that Lithuania was an uncivilized land of thick forests and bogs.
[49] The text opened with an acknowledgement that foreign authors spread a lot of misinformation about the Grand Duchy and then attempted to disprove most popular notions.
