Carte Nouvelle de la Grande Tartarie…

A striking depiction of northern Asia from the late 17th century.

This gorgeous hand-colored map of Asia provides some of the most up-to-date geographic information known to Europeans during the 17th century. Focusing on the politically ambiguous kingdom of Grand Tartary, east of the Volga River, the image presents a wealth of incredible details about the state of Pacific and Arctic exploration, Russian imperialism, a fractured Trans-Caspia, and the successors of the Mughal Empire. In Europe and Grand Tartary, the northern regions were largely under the control of Russia, and the pattern of settlements follows the navigable rivers and a sparse network of roads. As one ventures further south, the city symbols change from a town to a yurt and numerous hordes are named, signifying the transition from imperial order to the tribal steppes of Central Asia. The Great Wall separates Qing China from these dangers, but the scattered kingdoms to the west (Uzbeks, Kashgar, Buchara, etc.) were under regular threat.

Major geographic features (mountains, deserts, forests, etc.) are depicted pictorially, giving a somewhat tactile (if misleading) overview of the physical landscape. While much of the geography of the Far East looks quite speculative, it was relatively accurate for the period. Korea is depicted conclusively as a peninsula, and the islands of Japan are immediately recognizable. However, the Terre de Jedso and Terra de la Compagnie (probably parts of Sakhalin or the Kuril Islands) are more myth than reality in their depiction. Immediately above, in the unknown Arctic, is an interesting composite inset. The lower image shows a theoretical peninsula connecting Nova Zembla to the Siberian mainland, as well as to Greenland! The upper map presents the northern border of China, based on the works of Flemish Jesuit priest Ferdinand Verbiest.

The map was published in Amsterdam by Pierre Mortier around 1696, copied almost directly from Alexis Hubert Jaillot. French Royal Geographer Nicholas Sanson is also credited in the title block, but the real inspiration of the work was a map of Tartary and Siberia by Dutch diplomat Nicolaes Witsen. Witsen was one of the first Europeans with access to Russian geographic sources, and his work, Noord en Oost Tartarye, was the authoritative record for several decades.