The English edition of Jansson's map of the Volga River

JANSSON, Jan.

Nova et Accurata Wolgæ Fluminis, olim Rha dicti Delineatio. Auctore Adamo Oleario.
Oxford: Jan Jansson van Waesbergen, Moses Pitt & Stephan Swert, c.1680. Coloured. 470 x 550mm.

A map of the Volga River from Nizhniy Novgorod (birthplace of Maxim Gorky) south to the Caspian Sea, marking Astrakhan. Adam Ölschläger (latinised as Olearius) visited Persia between 1635 & 1639 as secretary to a mission from Holstein in Germany to open up a trade route for Persian silk via Russia and the Caspian Sea. His map was one of the first published in the west to show the Caspian as being longer than wider, something he himself has witnessed.
This map was originally published by Jan Jansson in 1658; after his death the plates passed to his son-in-law, Jan Jansson van Waesbergen. He went into partnership with two English publishers, Pitt and Swart, to produce a twelve-volume 'English Atlas' to compete with Blaeu's. Between 1680 and 1683 four volumes of the atlas and the text for the fifth were printed in Oxford, but the mounting costs were too much. Production ceased and for a time Pitt was locked up in the Fleet Prison for debt, making this state of the map quite uncommon. The differences are van Waesbergen & Pitt's names as publishers and a grid engraved over the map.


Stock ID : 17430