Poland - Lithuania by Petrus Schenk. c. 1715
This very rare third state also shows some changes in content, e.g. numerous cities west of the Oder, outside the borders of Poland, have been added.
The Schenk Family
Petrus Schenk (1660-1718), the founder of one of the best-known publishing firms of Amsterdam in the 18th century, was born in Elberfeld, Germany, in 1660. He went to Amsterdam where he became a pupil of the engraver Gerard Valck. On 19 Nov. 1686, a privilegio was granted to Petrus Schenk and Gerard Valk for the manufacturing and selling of their prints. Schenk’s contribution to cartography dates from c. 1695. In 1706 he moved to the Vijgendam in Amsterdam, ‘in Sanson’s Atlas’. After he died in 1718 his son, Leonardus Schenk, continued the art and print shop. The second son, Petrus II, settled in another famous house: ‘in Visscher’s Atlas’ where he continued the association with Gerard and Leonarus Valck.
The Schenk family produced general geographical atlases and special atlases. Apart from seventy original maps, several hundred are known with the name of Schenk, which were printed from plates obtained from Janssonius and Visscher. Schenk and Valck acquired all the plates of the Janssonius Heir’s Novus Atlas, Celestial atlas included. Many of Janssonius’ plates were reworked and amended.
The republishing of the maps from Janssonius’ Novus Atlas since c. 1680 was followed by the engraving of new maps, copied from Sanson’s better and more modern maps. Petrus Schenk published these maps in his Atlas Contractus sive mapparum geographicarum Sansoniarum auctarum et correctum Nova Congeries, also called Atlas Minor. After 1719, Petrus Schenk II continued the Atlas Contractus.
Petrus Schenk, the elder, enjoyed great fame as a print-seller and artist among art-and print-dealers in the whole of Europe. The great activity in map publishing, displayed by Petrus Schenk, the elder, was continued by his son and grandson. But the number of original atlas-maps is small. Like his father, who bought the copperplates of Janssonius’ atlas, Petrus Schenk II bought many of the plates formerly owned by Nicolaas Visscher.
Apart from the globes, maps and atlases, Petrus Schenk II published many books. He was older men of the booksellers guild in 1733.
Friderico Augusto Vero Augusto Polon. Lithua. Borus. Pomer. Regi. Duci. Principi. Saxon. Utr. Duci. S. Imp. Elect. Haec. Imperii Sui Regna.
Item Number: 28264 Authenticity Guarantee
Category: Antique maps > Europe > Eastern Europe
Old, antique map of Poland - Lithuania, by Petrus Schenk.
Title: Friderico Augusto Vero Augusto Polon. Lithua. Borus. Pomer. Regi. Duci. Principi. Saxon. Utr. Duci. S. Imp. Elect. Haec. Imperii Sui Regna.
D.D. P. Schenkius | Scul Regius
C. Amstelodami exc. prope forum. | et West Frisiae. [Date 1711 erased but still slightly visible.]
[At the top of the map:] Cum privileg Regis Polen et Elect. Sax. et Ord. Holl. et Westfrisiae.
With inset map of Saxony: Electoratus Saxoniae, Marchionatus Missiae, Superioris e Inferioris Lusatiae, Landgraviatus Thuringiae, et Comitatus Hennebergae, Tabula Generalis.
Third state.
At top of cartouche: Portrait of King August II. This portrait differs from the first and second states: without a hat and with a different hairstyle.
Date of the first edition: 1704.
Date of this map: c. 1715.
Copper engraving, printed on paper.
Size (not including margins): 490 x 580mm (19.29 x 22.83 inches).
Verso: Blank.
Condition: Original coloured, excellent.
Condition Rating: A+.
References: Niewodniczanski, p. 47-48, K15.3; MCC, Nr. 43: The Malinowski Collection of Poland, #415 (1705 edition).
Separate publication. - From a Dutch composite atlas, c. 1715.
This very rare third state also shows some changes in content, e.g. numerous cities west of the Oder, outside the borders of Poland, have been added.
The Schenk Family
Petrus Schenk (1660-1718), the founder of one of the best-known publishing firms of Amsterdam in the 18th century, was born in Elberfeld, Germany, in 1660. He went to Amsterdam where he became a pupil of the engraver Gerard Valck. On 19 Nov. 1686, a privilegio was granted to Petrus Schenk and Gerard Valk for the manufacturing and selling of their prints. Schenk’s contribution to cartography dates from c. 1695. In 1706 he moved to the Vijgendam in Amsterdam, ‘in Sanson’s Atlas’. After he died in 1718 his son, Leonardus Schenk, continued the art and print shop. The second son, Petrus II, settled in another famous house: ‘in Visscher’s Atlas’ where he continued the association with Gerard and Leonarus Valck.
The Schenk family produced general geographical atlases and special atlases. Apart from seventy original maps, several hundred are known with the name of Schenk, which were printed from plates obtained from Janssonius and Visscher. Schenk and Valck acquired all the plates of the Janssonius Heir’s Novus Atlas, Celestial atlas included. Many of Janssonius’ plates were reworked and amended.
The republishing of the maps from Janssonius’ Novus Atlas since c. 1680 was followed by the engraving of new maps, copied from Sanson’s better and more modern maps. Petrus Schenk published these maps in his Atlas Contractus sive mapparum geographicarum Sansoniarum auctarum et correctum Nova Congeries, also called Atlas Minor. After 1719, Petrus Schenk II continued the Atlas Contractus.
Petrus Schenk, the elder, enjoyed great fame as a print-seller and artist among art-and print-dealers in the whole of Europe. The great activity in map publishing, displayed by Petrus Schenk, the elder, was continued by his son and grandson. But the number of original atlas-maps is small. Like his father, who bought the copperplates of Janssonius’ atlas, Petrus Schenk II bought many of the plates formerly owned by Nicolaas Visscher.
Apart from the globes, maps and atlases, Petrus Schenk II published many books. He was older men of the booksellers guild in 1733.
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