The Map of Moldavia or Bauer Map. An important cartographic document

The Map of Moldavia or Bauer Map. An important cartographic document

Text: Mihai Florea

In 2018, the National Museum of Romanian History managed to purchase an important cartographic document, made of six folio sheets of large dimensions, which form together a detailed map of the Principality of Moldova, within the territorial limits of the second half of the 18th century. 

Mostly known as ‘The Bauer Map’, after its author, it is the work of a German-born officer, Friedrich Wilhelm (von) Bauer (Baur, Bawer, von Buer) (1731/34 – 1783), who entered the Russian Imperial army in 1769, at the invitation of Empress Catherine II (surnamed ‘the Great’) to join count Piotr Aleksandrovici Rumyantsev, the commander of the Russian army. Russia was then at war with the Ottoman Empire (the war between 1768 and 1774) and Bauer distinguished himself during the conflict especially through his engineering work. 

The map, which illustrates the 1768-1774 Russian-Ottoman war, has explanatory texts in French. Its value is given by the details regarding the settlements marked on it, which are very important for the knowledge of the territories between the Siret and the Nistru Rivers, for the identification of former settlements, of former river and spring crossings and for many other details which the author added for the use of the Russian Imperial Army, deeming that these would also be interesting for the wider public.

Although the localizations and the dimensions of many detailed areas must be regarded with caution, as there exist mapping errors, the map by Friedrich Wilhelm (von) Bauer remained for a while the only cartographic work including Moldova, Bessarabia and Bukovina, with details greatly surpassing general cartographic endeavors of the epoch.