Generalis Totius Imperii Moscovitici Novissima Tabula…

An engaging European perspective on Asian geography from the early 18th century.

This incredible map of northern Asia and the Russian Empire was published in Nuremberg by Johann Baptist Homann around 1715. The geography is heavily based on the landmark early 18th-century surveys of Eberhard Isbrand Ides, a Dutch merchant sent by Tsar Peter the Great on Russia’s first official diplomatic mission to China. Ides issued a map to accompany the celebrated travelogue of his journey, a work that was rapidly replicated across Europe as the definitive geographic authority on the interior.

This particular sheet represents the second state of Homann’s engraving. Richly detailed and enhanced with vibrant contemporary hand-color, the image stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Black and Bothnian Seas, perfectly capturing the era’s spirit of imperial exploration. Russia’s vast territorial claims are shown extending far beyond the Dnieper River all the way to the Amur and Selenga Rivers, anchoring critical footholds on the Black and Caspian Seas. The northern reaches depict the ambiguous borders of Nova Zembla and the largely uncharted glacial coast of Siberia, featuring an unusual, open-ended peninsula, a fascinating testament to Homann’s attempt to incorporate ongoing geographic discoveries (and a tell-tale sign of the second state).

Outside the empire’s formal borders, adjacent realms appear ripe for Romanov overreach. Along the contested western frontier, both the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania are delineated just before losing massive swaths of territory to Russian expansion, while religious concern for local Orthodox populations to the south prompted systemic aggression against the Ottoman Empire. Far to the east, the meandering overland route of Ides’ embassy is meticulously traced as it passes through the Great Wall on its way to Peking (Beijing).

The map’s decorative flourishes offer clever subtexts for a well-educated European audience. In the Arctic waters, whaleboats are shown pursuing dangerous quarry, alluding directly to the real-world origins of contemporary sea monster myths. The magnificent title cartouche features Peter the Great surrounded by allegorical figures representing his Western-looking imperial priorities: shipbuilding, commerce, religion, science, law, and warfare. Crucially, at the Tsar’s feet sits an architectural plan of a star fort explicitly labeled ‘St. Petersburg.’ This detail serves as another marker of the second state; in the original 1707 engraving, Peter’s brand-new capital and the island fortress of Kronstadt were left entirely unnamed, treated as highly sensitive state secrets during the existential crisis of the Great Northern War.