The next volume of the well-known and respected Plan of Warsaw series, entitled “Erik Jönsson Dahlberg - 1655 The City of Warsaw, the seat of the Kings of Poland actually shown as occupied by the Holy Majesty of Sweden on 30 August 1655”. The 1655 plan is the earliest known printed plan of Warsaw!
The authors of the publication, i.e. Paweł E. Weszpiński and Agnieszka Bartoszewicz, allow us to see the Dahlberg’s plan not only as a valuable document of the history of Warsaw cartography, but also as a fascinating historical and iconographic account.
Urbs Warsavia on Erik J. Dahlberg’s plan
The engraving is not large because it was an illustration. It occupied, as we would say today, a spread in a printed seventeenth-century book whose author described the history of the victories of the Swedish ruler King Charles X Gustav. The book was to celebrate the king and his political and military successes. Urbs Warsavia [!] - The city of Warsaw was depicted as one of his many conquests.
The Latin title placed in the cartouche at the top with baroque floweriness informs us that this is the image of the city as it was seen by the Swedish army entering the capital of the Republic during the Deluge: The city of Warsaw, the seat of the Kings of Poland, is actually shown as it was occupied by the Holy Majesty of Sweden on 30 August 1655.
publisher description
Book in Polish only
