LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

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paris maps. especially in the lower and less explicit half a very specific
rendering of the lower Danube and the Delta, typical of the majority of
German and Dutch maps from the 17 th century can be seen. the upper
part of the 1770 paris map is much more elaborated than all the previous
maps presented here – see e.g. the eastern boarder marked by the flow of
the river Dnjestr, exact boarder-lines towards Valachia and transylvania,
lacking on previous maps. the 1770 map represents the progress achieved
in mapping since 1737, among others, by using the method of triangulation
in the meantime developed by nicolas de Fer (1646–1720). 44
It is assumed that la rouge may have used maps of poland as a model. 45
Besides the efforts than Wapowsky and Guillaume de Vasseur de Beauplan
(1595–1685) 46 , more modern maps of poland are known to be published by
Guillome Delisle and d’Anville. the northern half of the 1770 map, was
done on a separate plate and sheet of paper. Interest in this part of Moldavia
will have been prompted by the newly developping theatrum belli against the
ottomans in the east, russia beginning to take the lead from the habsburgs.
The peace conference at Küçük-Kaynarğī in 1774 brought with it territorial
changes at Moldavia’s north-eastern boarder, the future habsburg province
of Bukovina being severed from the romanian principality and the ottoman
rayahs of Bender and Aqkerman being lost by the turks.
A thorough analysis and comparison of texts in cartouches and title
lines of 17 th /18 th century maps showing Moldavia has not yet been made.
Cantemir’s name on these maps partly explains why most scholars
consider them as true copies of his lost hand-drawn autograph. Furthermore,
their arguments are based on the word-by-word or thematic rendering of the
content of the maps – e.g. names of places, rivers, boarders of the counties,
pertinent data from recent local history like the battles of stănileşti (1711)
or hotin (1712), occurring on both the 1737 and the 1738/44 maps of
Moldavia. regarding the 1737 and 1738/44 single maps, it is assumed that
all these data would have been marked on Cantemir’s own map, and would
have been copied from there. even more pertinent is the use of a Moldavian
word – “cinutul” for lat. “Distr.[ictus]”. 47
44 http:/www/Wapedia_Wiki:Atlas.
45 EŞANU – EŞANU: Descrierea Moldovei, 104 (no names given ), 119.
46 SINNWELL, Arnim: Die Welt der Karten. München 2008. In 1647 the polish
king Sigismund IIIrd Wasa set him the task of compiling a prospection (Land-Aufnahme)
of the ukraine. In doing so, Vasseur described himself as “a pioneer in noman’s land”, 85.
47 only with the 1738/44 map: “Moldavicae cinutul [ţinutul], Gallicae tenementi” =
lat. “Distr[ictus]” (see sub-title).