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The Bohemian Rose by Christoph Vetter, 1677

This beautiful map which depicts Bohemia as a stylized rose - Bohemiae Rosa - was drawn by Christoph Vetter
for Bohuslav Balbin's work of national history and geography Epitome historica Rerum Bohemicarum.
Wolfgang Kilian, an engraver from Augsburg, made the copper engraving from a copy of Vetteręs drawing in
1668. The top of the map bears the motto of the Austrian emperor, Leopold I, "Iustitia et Pietate" (With Justice and
Piety). The 18 administrative units of that period are listed on the lower part of the sheet. This included 14 regions,
Prague, and three territories which had legal privileges (i.e. Loket, Cheb and Hlad). The translation of the latin
text is:"There grew a graceful Rose in the Bohemian woods, and an armoured lion standing guard next to her.
That Rose had grown out of the blood of Mars, not of Venus. There was Rhodes as well as the jump and the
country was created at once. Do not fear, lovely Rose! There comes the Austrian. May the gun of frightful shots
cease under the stifled Rose! The Rose of Bohemia, bloody for all the centuries, where more than 80 battles
were waged. She has been now drawn in this form for the first time."

EPITOME HISTORICA RERVM BOHEMICARVM QVAM OB VENERATIONEM
CHRISTIANAE ANTIQVITATIS, ET PRIMAE IN BOHEMIA COLLEGIALIS ECCLESIAE HONOREM,
BOLESLAVIENSEM HISTORIAM PLACVIT APPELLARE. In ea, Pleraque in Historijs
nostris incerta, contraversa, obsura; multa item ab alijs praeterita, summa fide, diligentia, claritate, &
brevitate QVINQVE LIBRIS explicantur, & statuuntur; Adjecti sunt Libri duo (VI. & VII) de
Antiquissimo Boleslaviensis Ecclesiae Collegio; deque Origine & Miraculis Magnae DEI Matris,
quae ibidem in Basilica sua summa Populi veneratione colitur. AUTHORE BOHUSLAO BALBINO
e SOCIETATE JESU, CUM GRATIA & PRIVILEGIO SAC: CAES: MAIESTATIS. PRAGAE,
Typis Universitatis CAROLO-FERDINANDEAE, in Collegio Societatis JESU, ad Sanctum
Clementem, per Joannem Nicolaum Hampel Factorem. Anno M.DC.LXXVII.

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