Z badań nad chronologią wydań i wiarygodnością treści map Jonasa Scultetusa

Autor przedstawia ocenę wiarygodności treści map Jonasa Scultetusa (1603-1664) będącą wynikiem przeprowadzonej analizy opisowej, polegającej na porównaniu elementów fizycznogeograficznych i gospodarczych na tych mapach z późniejszymi materiałami kartograficznymi. Prezentowany przegląd dzieł Sculetusa zawiera również informacje o chronologii wydań każdej z map i relacjach między nimi.

Jonas Scultetus was, after Martin Helwig, the second best recognized Silesian cartographer. He was born in Szprotawa in 1603, where he also started his education. Later he attended the famous gymnasium in Bytom Odrzański and studied at the Universities in Frankfurt on the Oder and Leipzig. He graduated as a qualified lawyer. For the rest of his life he remained linked to the Stosch family, the owners of Czernina, a town on the border of Wielkopolska region. Scultetus was the author of 8 maps, which were created during the thirty-year war (1618-1648), which was taking place in Silesia. There is no other information on the conditions or methods of their preparation. However it is known that he was sponsored by well-off Silesian gentry. The maps were published by renowned European publishing houses. The first print was done by Henricus Hondius and Johannes Janssonius in Amsterdam. Their chronology is as follows: after 1634 - the Duchy of Legnica as a separate sheet, in 1641 as an atlas map; before 1636 - the Duchy of Wołów as a separate sheet, in 1641 as an atlas map; 1636 - the Duchy of Głogów, a map of Silesia; 1638 - a map of Lower Silesia, the County of Kłodzko; 1639 - the Duchy of Breslau; 1644 - the Duchy of Grodków, The cartographic heritage of J. Scultetus has not been properly evaluated yet. His works have been neither researched cartometrically nor profoundly described, which is mostly due to slight disregard with which they were met. Researchers considered them to be primitive and uninteresting. The author of the article attempts to fill the existing gap and presents a descriptive analysis of the maps. It attempts to assess the reliability of contents by comparison of physico-geographical and economic elements on Scultetus' maps with later cartographic sources. Maps of the Duchies by J.W. Wieland and M. Schubarth from the 1752 atlas of Silesia and a topographic map Katie des Deustchen Reiches in 1:100 000 from the late nineteenth century were used for comparison. The analysis is preceded by a short note on the chronology of each map's editions and relations between them, which is illustrated by the enclosed filiation charts. The analysis covered river network, lakes, relief, forests and presented objects of economy. It turned out, that the reliability of analyzed maps varies according to the author's knowledge of particular areas. Scultetus' knowledge of Upper Silesia was relatively poor, therefore for his chorographic map of the area he partly borrowed from M. Helwig's work. Nevertheless, his map compares well to the one by Helwig, and in some respects it surpasses it, e.g. with the level of detail of river network and the number of geographic names. The Duchy of Legnica was presented best - all the considered elements are relatively correct. The presentations of the Duchy of Głogów and Lower Silesia are poorer. On the maps of the Duchy of Wołów, the Duchy of Breslau and the County of Kłodzko only some elements, mainly objects of economy, are credible. Thirty-year war trenches shown on the maps of Lower Silesia and the Duchy of Wołów are especially noteworthy. Despite their flaws the works of Jonas Scultetus have also a number of advantages, thanks to which they can come useful for research purposes, in particular for the reconstruction of landscape and some aspects of the history of economy. Being the first Silesian cartographic sources, they definitely deserve more attention in the future.