Nivellirnyi plan goroda Tiflisa sostavlennyi po trianguliatsii, semke i invellirovke goroda v 1879-1881 gg. inzhenerami putei soobshcheniia S. Umanskim, A. Popovy, i P. Zamiatninym.

A large manuscript topographic map of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

The Caucasus Topographical Bureau was established in 1853, and yet active mapping of the region began only after 1866, when Iyeronim Stebnitskiy (1832-1897) was appointed head of the Bureau. Work in the region was first undertaken in the northern Caucasus before progressing to the south. The agency's efforts were interrupted by the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 – 1878, when most of its employees were relocated to the basin of the Black Sea, charged with the task of researching the territories newly occupied by the Russian army.

The plan offered here was produced following the end of the war, when the Bureau was able to return to its routine work. It is drawn on 42 sheets to a scale of 1:2000 and shows the whole city of Tiflis (now Tbilisi), centering on the Mt'k'vari River, with all the topographical details, including the relief, streets and buildings. The sheets are numbered with corresponding rows and columns so that they can be assembled into a single, large wall map.

This manuscript plan is almost identical to the "Plan of the City of Tiflis with Surroundings" published by Il'in in Saint-Petersburg in 1887 and was likely used as the basis for this later work.

Russian manuscript plans of this scale and quality are very rare, especially in good condition and largely complete, as here. Produced for official use, the majority of them remained in state archives and libraries.

Square folio, 600 by 600mm (23½ by 23½ inches), 42 sheets, including 34 larger and 8 smaller sheets (40 with contemporary hand colour; 2 – B&W); some light soiling. Contemporary calf over brown cloth, gilt lettering to upper cover; slightly rubbed, corners bumped.

Istoricheskiy ocherk deyatelnosti korpusa voennykh topografov v […] v 1855 – 1880 gg. (Skt. Peterburg, 1880), p.74.