ROTH, Christoph Melchior (1720-1798)
Nouveau Plan de la ville et de la fortresse de St. Petersburg exécuté exactement d'aprés l'original qui se trouve dans les Archives de la Police
St. Petersbourg: 1776. Engraved plan, finely coloured by a contemporary hand; title in Russian and French within a lavish rococo cartouche surmounted by the crowned cipher of Catherine the Great. The key contains numbered public buildings in the left and right panels and an extensive alphabetical list of street names in the right panel; lower margin with a bilingual "Explication" of the colour-coding, a scale of sagènes (Russian measure of length) and English feet, and an elegant eight-point compass rose. Sheet size: 18 1/2 x 28 1/4 inches.
An outstanding, vibrant example of one of the earliest comprehensive printed directories of St Petersburg’s streets and public edifices, produced for official use and seldom encountered on the market.
A rare and authoritative cartographic survey of Catherine the Great's imperial capital, finely engraved by Württemberg-born Christoph Melchior Roth for the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences. Based directly on the manuscript held in the Police Chancellery archives, the central bureau for civic oversight, this 1776 plan offers a vivid and highly detailed depiction of St. Petersburg just 73 years after its founding. The plan presents a colour-coded record of the city's evolving urban fabric at a transformative moment in its development. Deep carmine marks completed masonry buildings, while pale rose denotes plots designated for future stone construction, visualizing the state-led campaign to replace combustible timber quarters (here shown in yellow) with fire-resistant, rectilinear stone districts. Public greens, parade grounds, and the glacis of the Peter and Paul Fortress appear in bright green. A lavish rococo title cartouche, bilingual in French and Russian, frames the composition with the crowned cipher of Empress Catherine II and a winged cherub sounding a trumpet. An accompanying key identifies the numbered public buildings on the left and right panels, while an extensive alphabetical list of street names follows on the right panel. Some of the topographical highlights include: The Admiralty dockyards at the city's naval and administrative core; The recently completed Kronverk bastion on Petrograd Side; Vasilievsky Islands future commercial hub, with the planned Exchange and embankments; A clearly delineated Nevsky Prospekt, anchoring the city's ceremonial axis; Emerging suburban zones such as Liteiny and the Moscow and Narva faubourgs; A planned system of harbours and dry docks, underscoring Petersburgs maritime role. The map is exceptionally rare. We locate institutional copies only at the National Library of Russia and the Harvard Map Collection. It is absent from major reference sources including Phillips, Tooley, Karrow, and Rumsey, and has not appeared in auction records through RBH or ABPC. This example is in superb condition with full original colour, an outstanding survival of one of the earliest printed plans to combine comprehensive topographic detail with an official street and building directory of St. Petersburg.
Postnikov & Seliverstov, St Petersburg on the Map of the Russian Empire (2008), plates 52-53 (later state); cf. Gensichen, Plans of St Petersburg, no. 36. Not in Phillips, Karrow, or Stadtpläne von 1572-1850.
Item #41781
Price: $3,500.00