Rare wall map of the Theater of War in Hungary, published dedicated to Augustus II the Strong.
The map includes the regions of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and part of Poland and Slovenia, based upon the work of Conte Luigi Marsigli (1658-1730, an Italian military engineer who surveyed Hungary and the Danube 1696-1699).
The elaborate battle scene at the top of the map depicts the Siege of Vienna in 1683. The battle was fought by the Habsburg Monarchy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire, under the command of King John III Sobieski against the invading Muslim Ottoman Empire and its vassal and tributary states, and took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna.
The battle marked the first time Poland and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Turks, and it is often seen as a turning point in history, after which "the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world".
The map is dedicated to Augustus II the Strong (1670-1733), then known as Frederick Augustus I. Augustus II was Elector of Saxony, Imperial Vicar, King of Poland (twice), and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
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.