Spatial Localization of Topographic Objects on Lviv’s Handwritten Schematic Map of 1686

For historians in historical topography and historical geography studies cartographic materials, along with traditional written sources, are equally valuable sources. The handwritten schematic map of the northern part of the Halych’s suburb of Lviv dated 1686 is a unique and valuable monument for studying the administrative and topographic structure of this suburb during the Magdeburg period. The pencil-drawn map on a sheet of paper has ink inscriptions and notes with no title or heading. A comparison of this handwritten map with a remarkable, non-standard fiscal document, the tax register from 1607, written either under the guidance of the Lviv governor Stanislav Anserin or by him, allows us to localize or specify the location of all topographical objects on the map. This concerns the lines of communications: streets “from the Bernardine Сhurch”, Shyroka, Honcharska, “Sliusarska and Kotliarska streets”, Palchykovska, “street to Wróblowy mill”, Sokolivska, Wallachian road, Wallachian bridge, Wallachian entrance gates. The scheme portrays the flow of waterways: the main (old) and artificial channels of the Poltva River, the main channel of its tributary, named Seret in the map, and the Canon’s and Wróblowy mills. The map also depicts the locations of the Church of the Epiphany with the cemetery (yard), school, hospital, and households of the brothers of the Epiphany Brotherhood. There is a unique reproduction of sconces and ramparts of the fourth line of fortifications by Jan Burns and the wall of the newly built monastery of the Carmelites. Besides microtopographical clarifications in the northern part of Halych’s suburb of Lviv, the analysis of the handwritten map of 1686 and its comparison with the tax register of 1607 allows us to propose a more generalizing hypothesis, in particular, regarding the early modern dual perception of the concept of “street” as a linear or polygonal formation, as well as an explanation of the terms “front street” and “back street” used in contemporary documents. Сomposition of the map suggests the version that it was executed on the order of the Epiphany brotherhood, whose church was the mental center of the world for the brothers.