In 1986, the scientific editor of the volume Olga Katsiardi-Hering discovered in the Cartographic Collection of the War Archive in Vienna, in the State Archives of Austria, a series of unpublished, handwritten, original, colored maps dating from the period of the Second Venetian Rule in the Peloponnese (1685-1715). The maps were designed by engineers of the Venetian Republic with the purpose of recording, in the form of inventories and cadastral surveys, the Peloponnesian regions that had come under its control since 1685. They were part of Venice's large program to record the land and depict in detail the productive areas, with the aim of mapping land ownership, taxation, revenue collection, etc. The large-scale, detailed maps of the districts (territorii) into which Venice divided the Peloponnese were accompanied by individual cadastral records, some of which have been preserved and some of which have already been subjected to detailed analysis. After the fall of the Venetian Republic to Napoleon and its subsequent incorporation into the Habsburg Monarchy, these maps were transferred to the Geographical Military Service in Vienna and have since remained in the State Archives of Austria. They consist of twelve large-scale maps (a total of 53 sheets) that record geographical details, a plethora of place names, cultivated and deserted areas, villages (inhabited and uninhabited), and more. They are valuable material for historians, geographers, environmental researchers, and economic historians.

The historians, archaeologists, and cartography experts John Bennet, Siriol Davies, Haris Kalliga, Olga Katsiardi-Hering, Eftychia D. Liata, Evangelos Livieratos, Alexis Malliaris, Maria Mamali, Dimitris Belezos, Konstantinos Dokos, Angeliki Panopoulou, Anastasia Papadia-Lala, Giorgos Tolias, and Agamemnon Tselikas collaborated on this volume. Their detailed studies present and scientifically analyze these maps, providing material for further reading and study. The volume includes all the maps, both in summary form and in detailed form by sheet, with the numbering added by the researchers to facilitate the use of extensive lists of place names. The edition was edited by Kostoula Sklaventi, who also compiled the detailed indexes of people and place names (in Venetian and Greek). Finally, the volume is accompanied by a digital disk containing all the cartographic material.
We hope that with this work, the scientific community, and not only, will have valuable material and a tool for further research.