5. Карта Лифляндской губернии из 4 уездов и Эзельской провинции. [Map of the Livonia Province of 4 Counties and the Ezel Province].

• Main Author: Aleksandr Mikhailovich Wilbrecht Александр Михайлович Вильбрехт (1757 - 1823)
• Format: Map
• Language: unknown
• Published: Географический департамент [Geographical Department], 1800
• Subjects: Kamchatka; Alaska
• Online Access: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~356359~90123298; https://media.davidrumsey.com/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=/Size4/RUMSEY~8~1/213/15850010.jpg

"Folio Atlas, but here with Complete Contents contemporarily left unbound and presented as 47 separate copper engraved leaves, each with contemporary pink paper edging. Extremely rare and historically important – the finest Enlightenment Era atlas of the Russian Empire, being the second edition of the work, made on the orders of Czar Paul I to present his new jurisdictional reforms, created by Aleksandr Mikhailovich Wilbrecht, the Chief Geographer and Cartographer to the Imperial Court, from the best sources and surveys, a complete example with 43 maps and 2 preliminary leaves, including a giant 3-sheet general map of the Russian Empire with an important inset depicting the Gulf of Alaska and northern British Columbia coasts, dozens of maps of individual Russian ‘gubernia’ (provinces) of unprecedented accuracy, as well as a map focusing upon Alaska and Kamchatka predicated upon intelligence gained from numerous Russian and British exploring expeditions; all maps beautifully decorated with allegorical cartouches, with text in Russian Cyrillic, published in St. Petersburg by the Czar’s Geographical Department; an extraordinary example clearly never bound, but preserved ‘in plano’ with all leaves with original outline hand colour and contemporary pink paper edging. This work is the finest Enlightenment Era atlas of the Russian Empire (which then included Alaska), and one of the foundational monuments of Russian scientific cartography and geographic intelligence. It is the revised second edition of a work first issued in 1792, and was made by Aleksandr Mikhailovich Wilbrecht, an exceedingly talented geographer, cartographer, mathematician and astronomer, who was the chief geographer and mapmaker to the Imperial Court. This revised edition of the atlas was created on the orders of Czar Paul I especially to show the empire’s new internal jurisdictions which were imposed per his reforms. The folio atlas features 43 maps, including a giant 3-sheet general map of the entire Russian Empire featuring an inset bearing a ...