Sophianos was well known as an expert on Greek history and geography. He was sent to Greece in about 1543 by Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, the Spanish envoy to Venice, to acquire Greek manuscripts for the Escurial Library. It is about this time – possibly in 1540, the date found at the end of Sophianos text on this map – that Sophianus compiled his great map of Greece, although there is no surviving example.
In 1544, Johann Oporinus, a printer and publisher in Basle, published an eight-sheet version of Sophianos map, cut by Master Christoph of Strasburg. Of this earliest printing, there is also no known extant example. Indeed, the earliest surviving printing of the map recorded by Zacharakis or Karrow was printed by Johann Schroeter in Basle in 1601.
It appears that Oporinus reprinted the map in 1545 to accompany his edition of Gerbelius “In Descriptionem Graeciae Sophiani, Praefatio….”. Although the book gives instructions on colouring the map, and contains additional gazetteer, the map seems not to ha...
Bland arbeten.
Descriptio nova totivs Graeciae per Nicolavm Sophianvm. Basle, 1544-1545, large woodcut wall-map of Greece, on eight sheets uncut, each sheet approx. 380 x 280mm., with an additional sheet with letterpress gazetteer. Of great rarity. The earliest surviving wall-map of Greece and the first significant modern map of Greece, compiled by Nickolaos Sophianos, a Greek cartographer from Corfu, born of a noble family there. This example is apparently the second state of the map. It retains the date 1544 just above the scale bar on the bottom right hand skeet, but the letterpress text in the left hand cartouche on the lower left sheet may have been reset, in whole or part, as it ends with the date “prid[ie] Calend[is]. Septembr[is]. Anno salutis publiae M D X L V”.
Sotheby's. Zacharakis, Printed Maps of Greece: Sophianos 2242; Karrow, Mapmakerers of the Sixteenth Century, 71/1.2.
B. Smolenskoye, Vereysky district [now Moscow region], 1716-18; d. St Petersburg, 25 Feb 1770.
Russian draughtsman and engraver. He was the son of a priest, and from 1729 he studied at the St Petersburg Naval Academy. In August 1731 he was transferred to the instrument-making department of the Academy of Sciences, where he helped to make land-surveying instruments, including theodolites (a training that was of value when he later came to sketch views of St Petersburg); he also learnt how to carve moulds for dies under Georg Unfertsagt (1701-67); and he studied drawing under the two members of the Academy staff, Ottmar Elliger II and Elias Grimmel (1703-58). In June 1743 Makhayev was made director of the cartographic and die-carving section of the Academy, and he was employed there for the rest of his life. Together with his pupils he helped to produce the Atlas rossiyskoy imperii ('Atlas of the Russian Empire'; 1740s); in addition, he provided inscriptions for diplomas for honorary members of the Academy, for porcelain snuff-boxes and for a large silver shrine at the tomb of Aleksandr Nevsky (early 175...
Bagrow.
1751-1802.
Österrikisk kartograf. Gav år 1800 ut 'Allgemeiner grosser Atlass' med 55 kartor av olika utländska kartografer. De enkla bladen är daterade 1786-97.
Bland arbeten.
Allgemeiner grosser Atlass.
Phillips.
Ingermanlandiae – Homanns Erben 1734
Spetsbergen och Franz Josefs land. - ca 1930-50.
Förteckning över kartorna.
vse Baltijskago morya raznykh' sochinenij morskïya karty sobrany, razsmotreny, i Rossij-|kimi plavatelyami na istinnye mezhdu mest' kompasnye rumby i distantsïi privedeny, | i vymerennymi po prostranstvu morya i u beregov' glubinami, vnov najden-|nymi tam' zhe podvodnymi melyami dopolneny. | A | V' SINUSE FINSKOM' | vse morskïe berega s' ostrovami, shkherami, rejdami, zalivami, portami i rechnymi ust'yami, | s' glubinami pri nikh, i mezhdu shkher' morya farvaterov' so mnogimi vnov' | naJdennymi melyami, pod' vladenïem' | EYA IMPERATORSKAGO VELICHESTVA | sostoyashschïe, | PO UKAZU | EYA IMPERATORSKAGO VELICHESTVA | iz' Gosudarstvennoj Admiraltejskoj Kollegïi Noyabrya II dnya, 1776 [correction with pencil 1746] goda vnov' opisany, vymereny, i v' istinnykh' | polozhenïya ikh', i mezhdu mest', kompasnykh' rumbakh' i distantsïyakh', na morskiya karty, dlya bez-|opasnejshago Rossijskomu flotu plavanïya postavleny | FLOTA KAPITANOM' PERVAGO RANGA | ALEKSEEM' NAGAEVYM'. Vyrezyvanïem' k' pechati na doskakh' okonchany 1752 goda. Pechatan pri Admiraltejskoj Kollegïi v' Tipografïi morskago SHlyahetnago | kadetskogo Korpusa Aprelya ___ dnya 1757 goda.
A. Nagaev och hans sjöatlas över Östersjön.
Ryske amiralen Aleksej Nagaev ledde under åren 1746 - 1752 den ryska Marinakademins sjömätningsexpeditioner i Östersjön. Under denna tid uppmättes och lodades Östersjön och dess kuster systematiskt och noggrannt av expeditionen. Inte mindre än 22 sjökort är helt nya i Nagaev's atlas. Enbart vissa specialkartor, över områden dit han inte kunde ta sig längs svenska och tyska kusterna, är kopierade från Strömcrona's atlas. Översiktskortet över Östersjön är även det kopierat men från Gedda-Rosenfeldt's atlas.
Sjökorten är som tidigare nämnts noggranna i sina djupangivelser, men även farleder, grund, prickar, fyrar, ankringsplatser o.s.v. är tydligt angivna. Det som skiljer denna sjöatlas från andra är att även kusterna i många fall är karterade. Där anges bl.a. höjdförhållanden, markanvändning, vägar och bebyggelse.
Det finns en del rena spionkort i Nagaev's atlas och som exempel på detta är kortet över Öresund, eller ett ännu bättre exempel, kartan över Helsingfors den är mycket noggrannare än Strömcrona's. Man ska komma ihåg att vid denna tid var fortfarande Helsingfors skärgård en militär hemlighet av högsta rang.
En del intressanta specialkartor rörande Finska viken är även de värda att nämnas, såsom kartan över Gogland och dess omgivande vatten, kartan över Aspö skärgård, inloppet till Tvärminne m.fl. Dessa visar tydligt de militära förtecken som kom att bestämma valet av områden för noggrannare kartering förutom de självklara valen t.ex. Helsingfors skärgård
Kartuscherna i atlasen är i många fall enastående och starkt symboliska med syfte att visa Rysslands makt i Östersjön. Dominium maris Baltici är kanske den bästa korta beskrivning man kan ge över kartuscherna i atlasen.
1757 gavs atlasen ut av St. Petersburgs Marinakademi och kom att bli den bästa sjöatlasen över dessa områden i 60 år till amiral Sarychev's atlas kom ut. I norra Östersjön kom Nagaev's djupsiffror att förbli orörda i över 100 år.
Atlas Vsego Baltijskago Morja s Finskim i Botniceskim Zalivami s Skagerakom, Kategatom, Zundom, i Beltami.
Aleksei Ivanovich Nagaev, Russian admiral 1704-1781
Aleksei
Ivanovich Nagaev - admiral, member of the Admiralty College, principal
commander of Kronstadt Port, one of the first Russian scientific hydrographers.
A. I. Nagaev was born in March 1704 in the village of Sertykino, Moscow
Government, and came from an impoverished noble family. At eleven years of age
the boy was taken to Petersburg and sent to the Naval Academy, from whence on
2 March 1721 he was promoted warrant officer. In the following year he
supervised the works at Kronstadt of the digging of the canal, and then on 19
December he was sent to train the naval cadets. This period of teaching lasted
about seven years, by which time he had trained 419 naval cadets. Until
September 1724 he was located with his cadets at Kronstadt, and then he taught
navigation at the Naval Academy until May 1729.
In
March 1729 the Admiralty College decided to send to Arkhangel’sk two
frigates for practical research under the command of Captain Second Rank D.
Kalmykov. Nagaev was appointed to the frigate “Amsterdam-Galei”, on which
he accomplished the voyage to “Kil’diuin” and back. Then in 1730 Nagaev
was sent to Astrakhan and ordered to survey the Caspian Sea. For Four years he
worked diligently on the compilation of hydrographic charts of the areas of
the Caspian bordering Astrakhan. At that time on the instructions of
General-in-Chief V. Ia. Levashev he built several flat-bottomed barges for
transporting heavy loads. In 1733 Nagaev was appointed to the special
committee in Astrakhan charged with investigating measures to halt the
widespread destructive effect of the sea winds in Giliani.
Promoted
on 19 March 1731 to lieutenant, Nagaev on 18 January 1733 was gazetted on the
staff with the rank of lieutenant-major, and in 1735 he returned to
Petersburg. Several month later he was ordered to the Smolensk Government
Chancery to investigate outstanding debts due to the Admiralty, and on
returning from there was nominated on 25 November 1737 to the commission
investigating arrears, irregularities and thefts needing reparation in the
provinces. The following year Nagaev was on the commission “formerly under
the direction of the State Senate” to investigate more quickly income owing
to the Admiralty from the provinces.
In
1739 Nagaev was commissioned to investigate the measurements of the fairway
from St. Petersburg to Vyborg. In the archives of the General Naval
Headquarters is preserved a large volume of some 200 leaves written by Nagaev
himself containing the result of his work in this naval investigation. The
volume is entitled “24 July 1739 Journal of naval content on boat no. 5 on
the measuring of the fairway from Kronstadt lighthouse to Vyborg under the
command of Lieutenant of the Fleet Aleksei Nagaev”. For these activities
Nagaev in the following year on 3 November was promoted captain with the rank
of colonel.
At
the beginning of 1741 Nagaev was commissioned captain of the frigate
“Cavalier” on which he accomplished the journey from Kronstadt to
Arkangel’sk. This was one of the most taxing sea voyages. Although the
journey was without accident, in the course of the 57-day voyage, the crew of
the squadron of three frigates lost 121 men from disease, besides carrying
back from Arkangel’sk 326 sick (the total crew consisted of about 700 men).
In 1742 Nagaev was given command of the frigate “Mercurius”, and the
following year set off in that ship from Arkangel’sk to Kronstadt. During
the voyage the frigate struck the island of “Anaut” and sank, and Nagaev
returned on a Danish ship to Petersburg. Brought to trial he alone in 1744 was
acquitted and again was enrolled into the service. Appointed immediately as
adviser to research at the Academy he fulfilled these duties for two years.
In
1741 came the news of the death of Captain-Commodore Bering, and on returning
to Petersburg his colleagues Captain Chirikov and Lieutenant Vaksel presented
to the Admirality College his journals and notes. The College commissioned
Nagaev and Lieutenant Afrosimov to compile charts of the Sea of Kamchatka and
the coast of America, and also to compile maps from the notes of Captain
Shpanberg and Warrant Officer Shel’g. For a year Nagaev compiled detailed
charts of the Kamchatka Sea and mouth of the Amur, which were the first, and
for a long time the only maps of that region.
In
1746 he was given command of the ship “Fridemaker” (Peacemaker). Besides
this in May 1746 Captain Malygin, commander of the navigation company, gave a
report in which all the compasses made for the Admiralty had quite striking
differences and errors in declination. On receiving from the Admiralty College
instructions to look into the matter, Nagaev ascertained the veracity of
Malygin’s statement and proposed the elimination of the errors:
1.
To make pointers from the best steel instead of two wires.
2.
For the regulation of compasses to pass at Kronstadt Port a meridian line,
without which it was practically impossible to check the veracity of the
compass reading.
These
proposals were accepted by the College, and the laying of the meridian line
was supervised by Nagaev himself.
Nagaev
completed this task and sailed in 1746 round the Baltic Sea on the “Fridemaker”.
Early in October that year he returned to Petersburg and was appointed to
research for the Academy. On 11 November 1746 Nagaev was instructed by the
Admiralty College with “effecting naval charts with the greatest accuracy”.
In December that year Nagaev presented to the College in this connection a
detailed report on everything that was necessary in his view for the speedy
completion of the task entrusted to him. The College sanctioned everyting he
proposed, and early in 1747 he started his task. The results of this task
appeared in an atlas of maps of various parts of the Baltic Sea. Each map was
presented to The College and was inspected by members independently, and in
1752 they were all engraved. All the maps were well executed and thoroughly
accurate as they contained not only the results of Nagaev’s material,
collected by Russian sailors, but also material from Swedish charts.
Enrolled
on 5 September 1751 as Captain Second Rank Nagaev the following year took an
active role in education at the Naval Sailing Corps. Promoted on 15 March 1757
to Captain First Rank, Nagaev was then commissioned as Director of the Naval
Sailing Corps and member of the commission of building at Rogervik. In 1756
Nagaev was charged with compiling new signals for the fleet, and in April the
following year he presented to the College his work which was printed in the
press of the Naval Corps. The atlas, published in 1757, served as a guide to
sailing the Baltic and German Seas for sixty years, until the publication of
the atlas of the Baltic Sea by Admiral Sarychev. Several of the depths in the
northern part of the Baltic Sea from the Island of Ezel’ and Gotland north
to the Aland skerries remained in Russian as well as in foreign charts taken
from Nagaev’s atlas for more than 100 years.
On
5 May 1757 Nagaev was promoted to Captain Commodore. Relieved of his duties as
director of the Naval Sailing Corps in 1761, Nagaev was appointed a member of
the commission for putting the fleet in good order on 16 February the
following year. On 10 April he was promoted to Rear Admiral. On the accession
to the throne of Empress Catherine II, Nagaev sailed from Kronstadt to Pilau
with a squadron of three ships for delivery of the sick from the Russian army
marching into Prussia. Returning at the end of September to Petersburg Nagaev
attended meetings in the Admiralty College, and in October was appointed
member of the Kolberg Commission.
At
the beginning of the following year he was commissioned to compile
instructions for Lieutenants Bulgakov, Bukovskij and Laptev, who had been
ordered to produce a description of Lake Ladoga. In the same year during the
whole of the summer sailings he executed the duties of quartermaster on Her
Majesty’s sloop at the time of Empress Catherine II’s progresses up the
Neva. Early in 1764 Nagaev together with Count I. G. Chernyshev drew up a plan
for two expeditions which were preparing to investigate the Northern Arctic
Ocean. Promoted on 4 May 1764 to Vice-Admiral Nagaev was then appointed as
principal commander of Kronstadt port. Not long before this, Nagaev’s house
was damaged in a serious fire and some of his charts and manuscripts were
destroyed.
In
his duties as principal commander of Kronstadt port Nagaev served about two
years. Awarded in 1765, the Order of St. Anne, he was relieved of his duties
as principal commander and in December appointed member of the Admiralty
College. Returning to Petersburg at the beginning of 1766 Nagaev together with
Lieutenant-Captain D. Selianinov worked hard on the compilation of Lake
Ladoga.
On
3 January 1767 Nagaev was commissioned by the Admiralty College to compile
instructions for the expedition preparing to describe the White Sea. However
he was soon forced to go to Moscow, when he was chosen on 22 January as deputy
from Vasil’evskii Island and from the Admiraly College to serve on the
commission investigating a new code of laws. He remained in Moscow for about a
year serving on the commission, and on 14 December was ordered by Empress
Catherine II also to appear at the commission in Petersburg. Nagaev did not
appear to play a particularly active role in work on the new law code. More
often than not he tened to agree with the opinions of the other deputies. In
addition to attending the meetings of the Great Assembly, Nagaev also became a
member of the subcommittee on caution of contradiction between military and
civil laws.
While
still in Moscow and besides the work for the committee and subcommittee, he
described together with Navigator S. Zakharov the River Moscow. Then having
received from Navigators Pososhkov and Trubnikov a description of the River
Oka from its source to its confluence with the Moscow River, he compiled from
them maps of that river, which were collected in a separate atlas. Returning
to Petersburg in January 1768 he as before attended the Admiralty College and
soon after received instructions to prepare a fairway, which would be needed
to carry the stone to be used in the monument to Peter I.
Promoted
on 4 July 1769 to Admiral, Nagaev fulfilled his duties as an elder member of
the Admiralty College for some time. In due course he was ordered to Reval to
supervise the repair of damaged frigates from Spiridov’s squadron which had
been forced by accidents to put in at Reval. Nagaev also supervised all the
new buildings of the Naval Department at Reval. Returning to Petersburg Nagaev
again occupied himself with hydrographic work.
In
January 1779 the governor of Siberia D. I. Chicerin sent to the Admiralty
College Foreman Lobashkov, who had described the shores and mouth of the River
Kolyma and Bear Island. Nagaev was appointed to compile maps from the details
in these notes, which he presented to the Empress Catherine II.
About
this time Lieutenant Captain Levashev returned from the expedition to
Kamchatka, he was a companion of Captain Krenitsyn, who had drowned in the
River Kamchatka. Levashev handed over to the College all the plans, notes and
measurements made by Krenitsyn and also his own. The College gave this
material for editing by Nagaev, who was instructed to compile from them a
general map of the route of the expedition, which he quickly fulfilled. From
April 1773 to the end of the following year Nagaev governed the Admiralty
College during the absence of Vice-President Count Chernyshev, who had been
granted 18-months’ leave. At that time Nagaev’s deteriorating health
forced him to leave the College, and to soon request his retirement. On 10
July 1775 he was retired on account of ill health with a pension based on his
last year’s service and awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevskii. However
despite the state of his health Nagaev did not cease to work on the correction
and compilation of naval charts and draughts.
In
1789-90 Nagaev’s “Sailing Directions of the Sea Voyage, containing
Descriptions of the fairways and entrances to ports found in the gulf of
Finland, the Baltic Sea, the Sound and in the Skagerrak” was published in 3
volumes by the Press of the Naval Cadet College at St. Petersburg.
“In
his home”, wrote his biographer Pagaev-Verevkin, better known as an admiral,
“there was no room but for papers, books and maps he was studying. Only when
he slept did he not have a slate-pencil, pen or crayon in his hands”.
Nagaev
died in Petersburg on 8 January 1781. After that, besides numerous maps and
plans remained many papers among which he had hoped to prepare for publication
both the voyages of Bering and the naval journals of Captains Chichagov and
Krenitsyn. He had also collected materials for the biographies of Russian
sailors, and the letters of Peter the Great. These latter served as a basis
for the work of V. N. Berkh under the title “Collection of Letters of
Emperor Peter I to various Individuals, with their replies”. (Russian
Biographical Dictionary, St. Petersburg, Imperial Russian Historical Society,
1914.)
Bagrow,
A History of Russian Cartography up to 1800, pp. 221 ff.
