<p>This study analyses the content of the <i>Map of South Prussia by Gilly-Cron</i> from 1793 in the context of its interpretive potential for a more complete depiction of the pre-industrial environments and landscapes of the Wielkopolska region (Greater Poland) in western Poland. The authors demonstrate the value of this manuscript cartographic work prepared with the use of water colour painting techniques and drawing ones, i.e., precise black lines drawn with a pen in ink. The interpretative potential was tested on the basis of an analysis of high, medium–high and low vegetation as well as settlement units for a representative sheet of the Poznań area. The authors draw attention to the need for an individual approach to recognising and interpreting cartographic symbols on manuscript maps. The lack of cartometrics of this map and minor errors in the incompleteness of topographic objects resulting from reconnaissance field mapping has been taken into account. The map provides valuable set of landscape components and can be applied to obtain data on the specific types of land use, inferred from the analysis of plant cover, especially forest and meadow areas. The Gilly-Cron’s Map is the first almost complete image of the topography of Wielkopolska at the end of the eighteenth century, with the possibility of relatively accurate location of the components of the landscape at that time. It is an important cartographic source for studying the history of plant cover, synanthropization processes and the general development of anthropopression at the end of the pre-industrial era.</p>