Silesia
What is Silesia?
It is a historical country in Central Europe, the backbone of which is the Odra River with all its tributaries.
In the Middle Ages, Silesia was divided into many independent principalities, which had a large degree of autonomy in administrative, military and economic policy vis-à-vis the Czech kingdom.
Historically, three Silesian principalities – Nysa, Opava and Těšín – were located on the territory of the current Czech Republic, and the Raciborz region extended there only very marginally. As a result of the hereditary policy, from the Middle Ages, individual duchies gradually crumbled into smaller units.
Silesia is divided into Upper and Lower Silesia. However, the term Silesia Superiori (Upper Silesia) appears in written sources for the first time only at the end of the 15th century in connection with Matthias Corvinus's invasions and his consolidation efforts.
Mapping of Silesia (selection)
·The Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer
Claudius Ptolemy (probably 100–168), who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, created a
world map on which the territory of the Czech Republic was first depicted.
Around 141, in the work consisting of eight volumes titled Geōgraphikē
hyphēgēsis (Guide to Geography), Ptolemy identified about 8,000 places for
which he provided geographical coordinates. Only half of the coordinates were
obtained by measuring longitudes and latitudes. The map was also based on
information obtained from merchants, sailors and participants in military
campaigns. Ptolemy drew the maps, but they have not been preserved. There were
26 maps drawn in coloured ink on parchment. The purpose of his work was mainly
the coordinates of places and instructions according to which everyone could
create a map of a certain area.
The first large independent map of Silesia was published in 1561 by the scholar and teacher Master Martin Helwig's (the so-called Helwig map). The map was carved in wood and produced in a printing house in Nysa. The original has not been preserved.
Map of Silesia
Jonas Scultetus (1603–1662/64) was born in Szprotawa in Silesia; after his studies, he was a tutor in noble families, then worked as a prothonotary, but, above all, he was a draftsman and cartographer. With his work, he followed up on Marcin Helwig's work. In 1638, he prepared maps of Kladsko and, by 1645, maps of all Silesian principalities. A comprehensive document titled Silesiae ducatus accurata et vera delineatio was published in the first half of the 17th century as part of the atlases of the important Amsterdam publishers Blaeu, Hondius and Janssonius.
Jan Tobiáš Majer (1723–1762), astronomer, mathematician and cartographer, worked in the workshop of cartographer Homann in Nuremberg from 1746 to 1751. He compiled a map of the lands of the Czech Crown.