Beschreibung:

DELISLE, JOSEPH NICOLAS Atlas' Rossiyskoy sostoyashchey iz' devyatnatsati spetsial'nykh kart' predstavlyayuschchikh' Vserossiyskyyu Imperiyu s'pogranichnymi zemlyami] [Atlas of Russia, consisting of nineteen special maps, representing the All-Russian Empire...]. St Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 174 Folio (20 1/2 x 13 in.; 520 x 320 mm). Russian language issue. 19 (of 20) double-page maps with contemporary hand-colored outlining, including the 13 maps of European Russia and 6 of Siberia; lacking the general map, marginal staining to title and following leaf. Contemporary brown straight-grain morocco; spine worn and relined with linen. First edition of the first atlas devoted to Russia. Compilation of this work took nearly twenty years, following the proposal put to the Academy by the French geographer Jacques Nicolas de l'Isle in 1729 for the production of an atlas of the Russian Empire comprising sixteen sheets. He obtained the approval of the Academy in 1735, and its entire cartographic effort was devoted to the atlas, using materials gathered during expeditions to Siberia in the 1730s. On publication in 1745, Russian cartography came of age. "This atlas marks the summit of Russian cartography at the end of the first half of the 18th century' (Svodnyi Katalog). 'As the most complete representation of Russia to date, the atlas gave the European public a knowledge of the vastness and complexity of the Russian Empire' (Whittaker). REFERENCE:Bagrow-Castner II: 177-253 (collation 243-244); Phillips, Atlases 4060; Whittaker, Russia Engages the World 96-7; cf. Svodnyi Katalog 344 (for the Russian-language issue)