Ukrainian Lands at

the 16-18th Centuries Maps Unique project Vkraina.com The main purpose of this project is to shed a light on Ukrainian cartography from the times of European Renaissance till the Cossack State disintegration in 18th century. Here, the genuine historic materials of this electronic archive illustrate a topic that is somehow a bit forgotten, restricted in the past, and yet not enough explored and popularized in Ukraine nowadays. The world history is often rethought and might contain many contradictions but true knowledge of certain events and their evaluation in historic retrospective can still be gained through documented data. The maps are one of the most available

documentary sources. It is interesting to analyze and compare cartographic sources of different times, different political formations and different circumstances. The maps, selected for the project, are of great importance for the history of Ukraine’s international relations and provide a generalized perception of the Ukrainian lands status as seen by the Europeans in 16th-18th centuries. European Mapping of Ukrainian Lands Since the times of its origin, cartography has been one of the main sources of diverse knowledge about lands and territories: landscape features, natural characteristics, political and national system, borderlines, everything can be learnt from a map. Ukrainian lands from