First military treatise in verse with a map - Jan Kunowski's "Succour of Smolensk". The use of cartography in military operations (1616-1617).

The article is an analysis of an epic poem entitled "The Succour of Smolensk by Eminent Sir Aleksander Korwin Gosiewski" ("Odsiecz smoleńska przez sławnie wielmożnego Jego Mości Pana Aleksandra Korwina Gosiewskiego") penned by Jan Kunowski (1617). Being the first Polish-Lithuanian military treatise in verse with a map included, it is an exceptional text. The map was added to illustrate the space and events described in the treatise that were taking place during a military campaign between the Russian and Lithuanian troops conducted from the late 1616 to May 1617. I propose a hypothesis that "The Succour of Smolensk" reveals characteristics of a metrical military poem. I also shed light on the circumstances accompanying the drawing of this map, originally prepared for Aleksander Gosiewski's war staff in October 1616. Next, I present the role played by Jan Kunowski, a mercenary in the Swedish army that besieged Pskov in 1615. Kunowski used his experiences related to the construction of fortifications in order to cut off the food supplies for enemy fortresses or troops. The preserved map is crude in terms of geographic details, there are no cardinal directions, it is, however, orientated with azimuths indicating the main towns: Dorogobuzh, Katyn, Orsha, Biala, Mstislavl (east-north-east orientation). The scale of the map, being ca 1:500,000, is right for military operations, and it covers an area of ca 8,840 square kilometres. It is an example of cartographic source which was used in the early modern era for military operations