Ocena wiarygodności źródeł kartograficznych prezentujących oblężenie Połocka z 1579 roku
An Assessment of the Credibility of Cartographic Sources Presenting the Siege of Polatsk in 1579

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of cartographic works made in connection with the siege and capture of the Polatsk fortress by the army of Stephen Báthory in 1579. The aim of the study is to recompare the content of cartographic sources concerning the siege of Polatsk with the preserved plans from the middle 16th and early 17th centuries. The most accurate and credible plan of Polatsk from 1579 is a print made by Stanisław Pachołowiecki. The outline of the fortifications was presented in a fine way, fundamentally consistent with a plan of the same fortress from the mid-17th century. In comparison, a drawing by Paweł Thurn (Czumthurn) is littered with significant mistakes. It is, therefore, most probable that the drawing was not based on the same model as the print; it might have been patterned after sketches made by an Italian engineer, Petrus Francus. The analysis conducted indicates that the print of Georg Mack the younger cannot be treated as a cartographic source but only as its author’s imagination about the events that took place at the influx of the Palata river to Daugava.

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