Map of Poland: Outlining Its Provinces and Voivodeships, 1772
Because the territory of present-day Belarus was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and, since the end of the 18th century, part of the Russian Empire, the history of the mapping of the Belarusian lands is closely connected with the development of cartography in Western Europe and in Russia. Józef Aleksander Jabłonowski, governor of the town of Novogrudok (present-day Belarus), was an avid collector of cartographic works. Under Jabłonowski’s supervision and with his financial support, the Italian cartographer Giovanni Antonio Rizzi-Zannoni created the famous Carte de la Pologne : Divisée par provinces et palatinats et subdivisée par districts, construite d’après quantité d’arpentages d’observations, et de mesures prises sur les lieux (Map of Poland with its provinces, voivodeships, lands, and regions) using materials from Jabłonowski’s collection. The map was issued in Paris as an atlas in 1772. It is the first detailed, large-scale map of Poland before the partitions of 1772, 1793, and 1795 and shows the territories of present-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and western parts of Russia. The maps are engraved and illuminated by hand. It is the only atlas dating from this period in which the Belarusian lands are shown in detail and drawn to scale.