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A finely engraved mid-18th-century map of the Amt Belzig (Bad Belzig) in Electoral Saxony, published in Amsterdam by Pieter Schenk the Younger in 1748 under Saxon privilege. The map presents the administrative extent of the Amt in rich social and economic detail, oriented around the town of Belzig and extending to the borders with Brandenburg, Anhalt, and Wittenberg. Towns, villages, and hamlets are depicted with carefully differentiated symbols, indicating urban hierarchy, ecclesiastical presence, and noble estates.
The map reflects a dense administrative geography, with church locations, mills (water, oil, wind, and paper), breweries, lime kilns, tile barns, sheep farms, smithies, and quarries all rendered with individual symbols. Boundary lines are hand-colored to distinguish adjacent territories, including Denburg, Fürstlich Anhalt, and the neighboring Brandenburg lands.
The elaborate legend at lower left offers an unusually deep register of rural infrastructure and land use, including distinctions between full villages, manorial holdings, and single farmsteads. Cartographic ornament includes an ornate rococo cartouche and compass rose, in the Dutch-German tradition. An additional register of settlements and features is given in vertical margins.
Schenk’s production of Kreis and Amt maps during this period reflects growing demand for territorial surveys that balanced fiscal, legal, and economic functions. The clarity and comprehensiveness of this example suggests intended use both as a working administrative tool and as a visual affirmation of Saxon jurisdiction in a contested borderland with Prussia.
The map appeared in Schenk's Atlas Saxonicus novus, which was published between 1752 and 1811.
Peter Schenk the Elder (1660-1711) moved to Amsterdam in 1675 and began to learn the art of mezzotint. In 1694 he bought some of the copperplate stock of the mapmaker Johannes Janssonius, which allowed him to specialize in the engraving and printing of maps and prints. He split his time between his Amsterdam shop and Leipzig and also sold a considerable volume of materials to London.
Peter Schenk the Elder had three sons. Peter the Younger carried on his father’s business in Leipzig while the other two, Leonard and Jan, worked in Amsterdam. Leonard engraved several maps and also carried on his father’s relationship with engraving plates for the Amsterdam edition of the Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences.
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