Regnum Borussiae Gloriosis auspicys Serenissimi et Potentissimi Prin Friderich III.

Superb map of the Duchy of Prussia and region (modern-day Kaliningrad and northwest Poland) by the Homann Heirs company, the most important German map publishers of the eighteenth century. Johann Baptist Homann founded the family business in Nuremberg in 1702. Shortly after publishing his first atlas in 1707, he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and in 1715, was appointed Imperial Geographer of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor. After his death in 1724, the business was run by his son until 1730 when it was bequeathed to his heirs on the condition that it continued to trade under the name Homann Heirs. The map includes a large ornate title cartouche featuring two figures and two cherubs holding a crown above the Arms of the Kingdom of Prussia. The map is dedicated to King Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg and from 1701, self-proclaimed ‘King in Prussia’, making him Frederick I. From 1569, Poland and Lithuania were united in a union called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and enjoyed several decades of prosperity before entering a period of economic, political and military decline. Its increasing weakness in the late eighteenth century led to the progressive partitioning of the union by the Russians, Austrians and Prussians in between 1772 and 1795, which resulted in the elimination of an independent Poland for the next 123 years.