A two-sheet map of the Prussian province of 'Lithuania Minor'

BETGEN, Johann Friedrich.

Potentissimo Borussorum Regi Friderico Wilhelmo Majestate, Fortitudine Clementia Augustissimo Hancce Lithuaniam Borussicam : in qua luca coloniis Salisburg., ad incolendum Regio nutu concessa chorographice exhibentur D. D. D. Regiae Suae Maiestatis.
Nuremberg: Homann Heirs, 1735. Original colour. Two sheets, each c. 500 x 590mm.

An excellent example.

Map of 'Lithuania Minor', the most easterly province of the Kingdom of Prussia, given the name because of the large number of Lithuanian speakers. The extents are Klaipeda, modern Lithuania, in the north to Goldap in Poland in the south, with the eastern part of the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. Under the large pictorial title cartouche is a plan of Gumbinnen (now Gusev, in the Kaliningrad Oblast). This was a new town, built by Frederick William I of Prussia, as he was redeveloping the area after the population had been ravaged by plague in 1711. In 1732 he resettled the area with some of the 20,000 Protestants expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg.


Stock ID : 15112