1644 blaeu map picardy (1 risultati)

Very good condition. Lightly but evenly toned. Sharp, even strike and rich original color. Size 15 x 20.75 Inches. This is Willem Blaeu's map of Picardy, easily the most entertaining map ever produced of this region of northern France. The map focuses on the Somme River valley. Amiens, chief city of the region, St. Quentin and La Fere are given particular emphasis. Putti bear a superb coat of arms with Fleurs-de-lis aloft in the upper right, and the scales are presented in a strapwork frame. The beautifully engraved title cartouche deserves a description unto itself. The Farmer and His Wife The map's title cartouche is graced with an astonishingly homely and evocative scene. It is flanked by a farmer and a woman who, by her expression of pointed anger, can only be his wife. Sickle in hand, she glares at him while he peers at the reader under furrowed brows. This writer's spouse was alarmingly quick to assess the scene: 'He didn't do what he was supposed to do with the wheat, and she's annoyed because now she has to do it.' While the story told in this vignette appears to be plain enough, its context here is obscure. Why are this woebegone husband and his infuriated wife being associated with Picardy? There are many folk tales playing variations on the theme of The Farmer and His Wife - is there a specific one being alluded to? It would not be the only time a sly allusion to the politics of a region would be slipped into the decorations of a map. It may be a simple jibe by sophisticated Amsterdammers at the expense of the rustic denizens of a contested borderland. The Source The cartography itself is not innovative: Blaeu's map is a faithful reproduction of Jean de Surhon's 1557 map, as presented in Abraham Ortelius' 1579 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum . Both great atlas makers were keener surveyors of cartographic sources, than of the lands themselves. Belgica not Gallia Jean de Surhon produced his map in 1557, the year in which Picardy was invaded by Habsburg forces under the command of Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy during the so-called Italian War between France and the Holy Roman Empire. The campaigns in Picardy would be marked by pronounced Habsburg victories, in particular that of the The Battle of Saint-Quentin of 1557. Therefore at the time Surhon's map was produced, Picardy was not so much part of France (Gallia) as it was part of The Habsburg Netherlands (Belgica.) The 1559 Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, however, would return St. Quentin and the lands of the Somme to the French - hence the French coat of arms decorating the map. Publication History and Census This map first appeared in Blaeu's Atlas Novus in 1635, continuing to appear in that work until it was replaced by Joan Blaeu's updated - yet relatively charmless - map for his Atlas Maior . This example appeared in one of the Latin editions of Atlas Novus , between 1644 and 1655. There are about fifteen examples of the separate map cataloged in institutional collections. References: OCLC 776398551. van der Krogt 4100 2A.