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Description

Fine example of this rare Russian map of the northwest coast of America and northeastern parts of Russia, published by Wilbrecht in his rare 1792 atlas entitled Ross'iiskoi Atlas iz soroka chetyrekh kart sostaiashch'ii I na sorok na dva namiestnichestva Imper'iiu razdieliaushch'ii and published in St. Petersburg.

Wilbrecht's 1792 map appears to incorporate most of the details from his 1787 Karta predstavliaiushchaia otkritii Rossiiskikh moreplavatelei na Tikhom More i aglinskago Kapitana Kukka. Although constructed on a different projection, the detail along the Alaska coastline is very similar to the 1787 map.

Alexander Wilbrecht was the most important mapmaker in Russia in the last decades of the 18th Century. The present map is Wilbrecht's second map of the Arctic regions between Asia and America and is generally regarded as the most important and detailed mapping of the Russian explorations, prior to Cook's arrival. The map includes information derived from the leading Russian explorers of the north Pacific: Bering, Chirikov, Krenitsyn, Shpanberg, Walton, Shelting and Petushkov, as well as incorporating knowledge from the 1778-79 voyage of British Captain James Cook and the discoveries of Alexander Mackenzie.

The map also appears to incorporate the explorations of Gerasim Ismailov, who after meeting Cook in 1778 and exploring the region in the 1780s, he discovered the Kenai Peninsula and information drawn from the Magnus Behm map. The map in the area of Kodiak Island is also contemporary to the explorations of Dimitrii Bocharov and Grigorii Shelikov but does not seem to include any information not found in Wilbrecht's earlier map.

Among its more interesting features, the map includes a detailed treatment of the topography of the Russian regions in northeast Asia and a remarkably detailed group of original Russian place names in Alaska and along the northwest coast of America. The map provides excellent detail in Alaska and along the northwest coast of America, reaching as far south as Northern California, a foreshadowing of the Russian attempts at colonization along the California coast.

Alexander Wilbrecht (1757-1823) was a mathematician , geographer , cartographer and astronomer. Wilbrecht served as Geographer of The Geographic Department of the Cabinet of Her Imperial Majesty. In 1782, he produced the first Russian atlas. He also produced a number of important separately issued maps between 1787 and 1802. Wilbrecht is credited with authorship of several atlases, including Ross'iiskoi Atlas iz soroka chetyrekh kart sostaiashch'ii I na sorok na dva namiestnichestva Imper'iiu razdieliaushch'ii [The New Atlas or a Collection of all parts of the Globe], St. Petersburg, 1793 (Philips 679).

Condition Description
Minor foxing and soiling.