LithuanianMaps.com
Hello/Labas! I'm Andrew Kapochunas (Kapočiūnas) and this site reflects my interest in maps of the
historic Lithuanian area:"The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania," 1569 - 1795, at
one point 400,000 square miles and the largest country in Europe. It's the area represented today by
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Kaliningrad Oblast, eastern Poland and western Ukraine. So if you
or your ancestors are from any of these areas, you will find maps here of interest.




























What hasn't existed, before this site, is a single source for:
  • Information on mapmakers of this historic Lithuanian area
  • Historic-Lithuanian-area map images, sorted by date, from 1477 to 1953
  • The history that explains the shifting boundaries of Lithuania
  • Sites selling historic and contemporary maps of the historic Lithuanian area
  • Biographies of mapmakers of this area, hotlinked to their maps
  • Global auctions and fairs for historic-Lithuanian-area maps

Totals to date:
  • 1,555 unique historic-Lithuanian-area maps
  •    525 additional detail images of those maps
  •    100 unique 19th century and earlier town views and prints
  •      53 mapmaker biographies, many with illustrations
  •      36 hotlinks to additional map resources, including upcoming map fairs

I update the site every Friday, listing below the newly-added maps, town views and prints.

May 17 adds: 11 new maps; 5 new detail map images; 1 new town view

  • (TownViewsA-J) 1493 Schedel: "Lituania" (188KB), from the Latin edition of his "Liber Chronicarum..."
    (Nuremberg Chronicles), which has some of the earliest illustrations of towns. Also a detail image (382 KB) of
    the view, engraved by the workshop of Michael Wohlgemuth and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, which included
    Albrecht Dürer. Compare with the 1493 view of Lithuania from the German edition -- which is completely
    different, no surprise, given that most of the views in Schedel's landmark work are imaginary

  • 1542 Munster: "TABVLA EVROPAEVIII" (111KB), text in Latin, from "Geographia Universalis, Vetus et
    Nova, complectens Cladii Ptolemaei Alexandrini enarrationis libros VIII" (first edition1540), published by
    Heinrich Petri. Also a higher-magnification detail image (277KB), showing, among other tribes, the "Galinde"

  • 1550 Gastaldi: "Desciptione de la Moscovia..." Venice, 15.5 x 10.5 inches, basedon the field work of Baron
    Sigismund von Herberstein, who had visited Moscow twice as Emperor Maximillian I's ambassador to Russia.
    Note "Livonia," "Riga," "Memel," "Samogesthia," and "Vilna," among many fascinating details

  • 1579 Grodeckis - Ortelius: "POLONIAE..." (146KB) Antwerp, in a third version from "Theatrum Orbis
    Terrarum,"first published in 1570

  • 1598 Munster's "Cosmographia, " a miniature atlas published 1544 - 1628:
  • "Das vierdt buch" as a full page (77KB) and a detail colored map (166KB), showing towns from "Vilna" to
    "Lemburg" (Lviv), north to south
  • "Königreich Poladt" as a full page (66KB) and as a detail colored map (169KB), showing from Riga to the
    Black sea, north to south
    Compare with similar pages and maps from the 1569 version of the atlas

  • 1662 Blaeu: "LIVONIA Vulgo Lyefland" (370KB), Amsterdam, in a second version from "Atlas Maior, Sive
    Cosmographia Blauiana." Shows an area from the southern coast of Finland to northern Lithuania

  • 1690 Visscher: "Tabula Nova totius REGNI POLONIAE in quo sunt DUCATUS et PROVINCIAE PRUSSIA,
    CUJAVIA, MAZOVIA, RUSSIA, NIGRA &c. DUCATUS LITHUANIA, UKRAINIA...VOLHYNIA et PODOLIA"
    (448KB), Amsterdam (after Nicholas Sanson's 1665 map), in a second version, with a detail image (740KB)

  • 1782 Kitchin: "POLAND, LITHUANIA and PRUSSIA" (286KB) Edinburgh, from the Salmon atlas

  • (Maps1920-39PolishTopo) Polish 1:25 000 topographical maps, created by the Wojskowy(-kownego) Instytut
    (-u) Geograficzny(-nego) (WIG), Warszawa, based on earlier Russian maps. The three maps below cover areas
    beginning just east of "Wilno," and continuing due south, areas that were in Vilna guberniya before WWI, in
    Poland between the wars, and all in today's Lithuania. All maps this week are red, black and white with Polish
    place-names.
  • 1938 P30 S41-A - "NOWA WILEJKA" (Naujoji Vilnius [Lith.]) (7.3MB)
  • 1932 P30 S41-D - "RUDOMINO" (Rudamina [Lith.]) (6.7MB), the title town 7 miles southeast of Vilnius
  • 1932 P30 S41-G - "PIKTAKANCE" (Piktakonys [Lith.]) (7.6MB), the title town 9.8 miles southeast of
    Vilnius
200 metų ąžuolas. 200-
year-old oak in
Mažeikiai, Lithuania,
by Aras Mileska
1613-46  Engraved by Hessel Gerritsz - published by Willem Blaeu:
"MAGNVS DUCATI LITHUANIAE," Amsterdam,  28.9 x 27.3 inches.  
Gerritsz engraved the map from original drafts prepared under the
instructions of Prince Nicolas Christophe Radziwill. This example was
issued by Blaeu under his original imprint: “Guilhelmus Janssoni.” A
better version, without the centerfold browning, is AK-17
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1719 Title page, 15.5 x 10 inches, of Henri
Chatelain's "Atlas Historique," Amsterdam, a
seven-volume work that was one of the world's most
popular works at the time. From Barry Lawrence Ruderman
at www.raremaps.com
The mission and intent of this site: 100% educational.
Contents © LithuanianMaps.com, LLC, 2013
Missing/Stolen Map Database
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