%0 Journal Article
%T Ocena wiarygodności źródeł kartograficznych prezentujących oblężenie Połocka z 1579 roku
%A Łopatecki, Karol
%J Terminus
%V 2017
%R 10.4467/20843844TE.17.020.9347
%N Tom 19, zeszyt 4 (45) 2017
%P 759-795
%K Polatsk, tactics in the 16th century, siege operations, renaissance military cartography, Stanisław Pachołowiecki, Livonian War
%@ 2082-0984
%D 2017
%U https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/terminus/artykul/ocena-wiarygodnosci-zrodel-kartograficznych-prezentujacych-oblezenie-polocka-z-1579-roku
%X 
	An Assessment of the Credibility of Cartographic Sources Presenting the Siege of Polatsk in 1579

	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. It was based on written information and does not seem to have any foundation in plans made at Polatsk. The instance of a woodcut with the siege of the Starodub fortress that was repeated in a work of Aleksander Gwagnin as the representation of the capture of Polatsk shows that it is necessary to perform critical source analysis every single time.
	In the article, the author introduced a heretofore largely unknown plan of the extension of Polatsk kept in Riksarkivet in Stockholm. It has been established that the plan was probably made in the years 1647–1654 in consequence of a fire that destroyed the castles. It depicts the former fortifications with planned bastion works marked in red. In his audacious concept, the military engineer resigned from the natural protection provided by Palata and planned to build bastion fortifications on the other bank of the river. This ring would have been the first defence line of a regular shape and was supposed to provide good defence synchronisation with the Lower Castle. A comparison of this plan with a map form 1707 shows that this concept was not realized.