Analysis of watercourses on Aretin’s Map of the Bohemian Kingdom from 1619

Historic maps provide evidence of landscape development, including the shape of watercourses in the past. Aretin’s map of the Bohemian Kingdom (contemporary Czechia) from 1619 is Bohemia’s third-oldest map. In this analysis of Aretin’s map, we aimed to create an overview of watercourses at the beginning of the 17th century. We used MapAnalyst software to perform cartometric analyses and plotted watercourses on a contemporary map. Special interest was given to watercourses outside of the Bohemian Kingdom, which have not been included in previous analyses of the map. Content, semiotic, and cartometric analyses focusing on watercourses and on changes in the depiction of rivers over the four editions of Aretin’s map were performed to identify and label the previously unnamed rivers.