La Russie Blanche ou Moscovie,.

Title

La Russie Blanche ou Moscovie,.

Decorative map with two cartoiuches, shows the northwestern part aof Russia with Ukrain and the peninsula Krim. Partzly the black sea, the Caspian sea and the peninsula Kola.

ca. 1685

Artist

Jaillot/ Sanson (1632-1712)

Alexis Hubert Jaillot (1632–1712) was a prominent French cartographer and publisher. In 1665, he married into the Berey family of map publishers. After the death of his brother-in-law Nicolas II Berey in 1667, Jaillot bought the Berey map collection from his sister-in-law, acquiring a valuable stock without having ever created a map himself. Jaillot entered the map business at a favorable time—after Louis XIV’s early victories in the Reunions Wars in 1668, France’s territory expanded rapidly, creating high demand for maps showing French triumphs, new borders, and expansion plans. His collection included plates originally made by Pierre Duval, who resisted Jaillot’s reissues. At the height of this conflict, Jaillot gained the support of Guillaume and Adrien Sanson, sons of Nicolas Sanson, as mapmakers and partners, enabling him to publish new maps under the prestigious Sanson name. His first atlas, Atlas Nouveau (1681), was a commercial success, leading to widespread piracy by other publishers.

Historical Description

Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites, which include a mammoth bone dwelling. The territory is also considered to be the likely location for the human domestication of the horse. In the mid-14th century, upon the death of Bolesław Jerzy II of Mazovia, king Casimir III of Poland initiated campaigns (1340–1366) to take Galicia-Volhynia. Meanwhile, the heartland of Rus', including Kiev, became the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, ruled by Gediminas and his successors, after the Battle on the Irpen' River. In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Petro Doroshenko led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king John II Casimir. After Khmelnytsky made an entry into Kiev in 1648, where he was hailed liberator of the people from Polish captivity, he founded the Cossack Hetmanate which existed until 1764. In 1657–1686 came "The Ruin", a devastating 30-year war amongst Russia, Poland, Turks and Cossacks for control of Ukraine. In 1709, Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1639–1709) defected to Sweden against Russia in the Great Northern War (1700–1721). Lithuanians and Poles controlled vast estates in Ukraine, and were a law unto themselves. After the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire in 1783, New Russia was settled by Ukrainians and Russians.