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Henri Abraham Chatelain’s new map of Scandinavia presents a detailed depiction of Scandinavia and the northern regions of Europe, covering Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland in their entirety. The map also extends into the Baltic States, including Estonia, Livonia, and Courland, and reaches deep into Russia, illustrating the White Sea and the area around Moscow.
The map includes a wide range of geographical and administrative details such as towns, villages, fortifications, rivers, lakes, and coastlines. The Baltic Sea region is given particular attention, reflecting its importance as a center of trade and commerce.
At the top left, the map contains statistical tables listing the provinces, towns, and archbishoprics within the region. These tables also document copper mines, a key resource in Sweden’s economy at the time. The border of the map is decorated with coats of arms representing various provinces, reinforcing territorial distinctions and affiliations.
The map was produced during the Great Northern War (1700–1721), a conflict that reshaped power dynamics in Northern Europe. Sweden, which had been a dominant force in the region, was engaged in war against a coalition that included Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Poland-Lithuania. The depiction of extensive Russian territory, including Moscow and Arkhangelsk, reflects growing Western European awareness of Russia’s territorial expansion under Peter the Great.
The heraldic embellishments along the sides of the map add a visual representation of the region’s political entities, reflecting the formal structures of governance in Scandinavia and the Baltic.
Henri Abraham Chatelain (1684-1743) was a Huguenot pastor of Parisian origins. Chatelain proved a successful businessman, creating lucrative networks in London, The Hague, and then Amsterdam. He is most well known for the Atlas Historique, published in seven volumes between 1705 and 1720. This encyclopedic work was devoted to the history and genealogy of the continents, discussing such topics as geography, cosmography, topography, heraldry, and ethnography. Published thanks to a partnership between Henri, his father, Zacharie, and his younger brother, also Zacharie, the text was contributed to by Nicolas Gueudeville, a French geographer. The maps were by Henri, largely after the work of Guillaume Delisle, and they offered the general reader a window into the emerging world of the eighteenth century.
