EXAMPLE OF THE TIME AND MOVEMENT REFLECTION IN RUSSIAN MAPS OF THE XVIII CENTURY

M. Gubina

Universite Paris IV Sorbonne Bibliotheque Nationale de France Paris, France

mgoubina@voila.fr

The variety of Peter I fruitful activity of was reflected including in evolution of Russian cartographical skill. During Northern war report maps and schemes of carried out battles¹ have started to be made. Besides Russian cartographers gradually pass to use of symbols system, and, also, even more often try to represent battles in their evolution. Both these trends characterize the general evolution of the European cartography in XVIII century.

Confrontation on the sea in many respects determined an outcome of the Russian -Swedish war 1788 – 1790, to what testify, including, riches and a variety of the maps and charts reflecting sea battles. Maps of the Vyborg battle (June 22/July 3, 1790) are one of the most remarkable examples of that period Russian naval cartography. Except the high aesthetic qualities, these maps excellently reflect development and sampling of new methods by military maps compiling.

Our report is devoted to comparative studying of 10 different copies of the Vyborg battle maps from which 4 are stored in the Department of Cartography GYM², 5 – in National Library in Paris (A.Lobanova - Rostovskiy's collection) and 1 – in PGABMT³. All deeds are dated at 90-ies of XVIII century. Authors of these the same battle 10 maps masterfully use different systems of reality reflection: figure; symbols; seriality of cartographical deeds; the only once image of all stages of battle on one deed. At last, Russian cartographers bravely combine different cartographical techniques. Our research is based on the analysis of these important documents of Russian cartographic science from the point of view of West-European last achievements, in particular, French, history of cartography and graphical semeiology.

[1] See: L.G. Beskrovny, Sketches on a source study of military history of Russia, Moscow, 1957, pp. 226.

[2] See: V.E.Bulatov, Maps of the Vyborg battle, 1790, Report on Zabelin’s readings, 2005 (in the publication).

[3] This map is published in the anniversary publication: Valentin Michanov (dir.), La Flotte de l'Empire de Russie. 300eanniversaire de la fondation, Saint-Petersbourg, Archives des forces navales de Russie, Summaries, Romaine Pages editions, 1996, pp.96 – 97.