CYRILLOV’S
FIRST ATLAS OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE AS A UNIQUE MONUMENT OF THE 18TH CENTURY
RUSSIAN CARTOGRAPHY
L. Kildushevskaya1, M Orlov2
1 - National library of
2 - Federal agency of Geodesy and Cartography
kildush@nlr.ru
The atlas is
based on the materials of the First State National Mapping began in 1720 and conducted right
after Peter the Great’s Decree. Ivan Cyrillov the Senate Chief-Secretary led
the survey activities. A grandiose idea leaped in his mind was to publish a
three-volume Atlas of Russia with 360 maps based on the survey results.
However, for those times the project was unrealizable. Cyrillov managed to
publish only about forty maps. They formed a collection, which was actually the
first printing atlas of the Russian Empire though the collection did not cover
the overall country territory. Five
specimens of the atlas kept safe in all (at the national Library of Russia in
All mentioned atlas specimens differ in their
structure and are true cartographic rare specimens.
The specialist launched the reissuing project
to save this unique edition of national cartography. To do this one had to
solve a number of problems:
A scientific group of