One of the things I love about this map, is the name of the publisher: the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
The group was essentially a politically linked organization in the U.K. who made it their aim to provide high-quality educational materials for people with no or limited access to learning materials. It started in the 1820s, and does not seem to have lasted very long, but apparently produced a number of high-quality maps.
The image of the map I posted here is not the best, but as always, David Rumsey has me covered. See here for his high-quality image of the same map.
Warsaw has gone through much destruction since 1845 when this map was published. I find it difficult to compare this antique map with the city today. Not least because of the choice of orientation of the map. For some reason, it shows north as being towards the right. I can't think of a good reason to have done this, other than to have it appear in "landscape" orientation on the page of an atlas more neatly. I don't know enough about its history to comment, so I'll limit myself to the things I find interesting about this map.
One change I will point out is something noticed by another blogger, who does not normally write about maps. This blog notes that one difference in the city was the reclaiming of land from the river Vistula in the early 20th century. It provides a bit more information on Warsaw than I have.
When looking at the image I posted above, the outskirts of the city look a bit blurry. This is not a result of bad photography. This seems to be an intentional visual effect on the map. I find that it has the result of focusing ones attention on the city itself, which is interesting. I don't know if that's what the map-maker was hoping to do with his choice of design, but it has a nice effect.
I also like how the map, though it is itself an antique, notes important historic elements of the city. For example, there is a border of the city from 1762 shown on the map. This older border is well within what appear to be the borders of the city at the time it was published. Perhaps someone out there with a better knowledge of Warsaw's history can explain to me why this was an important date.
The town of Praga, on the east bank of the Vistula, notes that it was burned in 1794 and 1831, just a few years before this map was produced. The 1794 burning was as a result of a Polish uprising against Russian rule over Poland. I'm less clear on the causes of the 1831 burning, but I suspect it may be linked to the battle of Olszynka Grochowska as part of the 1831 "November Uprising" or Polish-Russian war. Again, I hope there are people better versed in Polish history than I am out there who can explain this better to me.
The comparison of important buildings in the city along the bottom of the map is also quite charming. Only a small sample are shown in close-up here, but it's clear that these were well drawn, with attention to detail. They also seem to be presented in a formal sort of way, not as a decorative addition. It's a nice feature to add to a city map.
It's a shame that I don't know more about Poland to be able to write more about this map, but I hope someone out there will be able to read this, comment and provide more information. I look forward to learning more.
As a final point, I notice that the back of the map has a stamp on it that reads Devon & Exeter Institution. This is a library that still operates, and their website is here. It's unusual to know the provenance of an antique map, and so this is sort of interesting to know that at some point in its life, the map belonged to this institution. How it got to a store in the United States I cannot say, but this find has done some travelling to get to my home in Ottawa!
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