Taurica Chersonesus Nostra aetate Przecopsca, et Gazara dicitur

The ‘Breadbasket of Europe’ in the late 16th century.

This striking engraved map is an interesting reduction of the geography of Eastern Europe, stretching from the Black Sea to Moscow. It provides a colorful overview of the regional geopolitical circumstances of the late 1500s, contested between the Tsardom of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, and the Crimean Khanate. Mountains, forests, and rivers dominate the image visually, with the latter offering a critical avenue for navigation and vital irrigation to some of the most fertile lands on the planet. The vacant plains would have been subject (in the minds of the audience, at least) to thundering hordes of Cossacks.

A variety of toponyms identify a fascinating variety of settlements, ranging from ancient Greek ruins to modern commercial entrepots and military outposts. Of particular importance, apart from Moscow, were the port city of Azov, the strategically located Przecop, the frontier city of Kyiv, and Caffa – the crown jewel of the Black Sea.

The map was originally engraved by the celebrated cartographer Gerard Mercator, best known for his innovative projection that allowed for straight lines of latitude. Mercator died in 1594, before his final atlas could be completed, and his copper plates were acquired by Jodocus Hondius the Elder in 1604. Hondius published his first edition in 1606; there were roughly fifty editions in various European languages in the seventeenth century. This example originates from the c. 1607 French edition.