Belgium sive Inferior Germania in svas XVII provincias divisa jucta ex actissimam

Title

Belgium sive Inferior Germania in svas XVII provincias divisa jucta ex actissimam

Description

Map shows the Benelux countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, a compass rose, a mileage scale and a title cartouche.

ca. 1698

Artist

Weigel (1654-1725)

Christoph Weigel the Elder (1654-1725) was a German engraver, art dealer and publisher. Christoph Weigel learned the art of copperplate engraving in Augsburg. After various positions, including in Vienna and Frankfurt am Main, he acquired citizenship in Nuremberg in 1698. The first Weigel work from his own, successfully run publishing house in Nuremberg was Die Bilderlust from 1698. This publishing house published around 70 books and engravings during his lifetime. One of his most important works is the status book from 1698. In it, Weigel described and described more than two hundred types of handicrafts and services, each illustrated by a copper engraving, based on life. Because Weigel visited almost all the workshops himself, drew and observed on site, agreed the content of his articles with the master craftsmen and signed important equipment from the original. Weigel worked particularly brilliantly in the scraping and line manner. He was the first engraver to use a kind of machine for the underground. In Nuremberg he worked very closely with the imperial geographer and cartographer Johann Baptist Homann (1664–1724) to create his maps. His younger brother Johann Christoph Weigel ran an art dealership in Nuremberg around the same time and was also very successful.

Historical Description

The area, which later includes the Benelux area, is called de Lage Landen in Dutch, Low Countries in English, consisting of Belgium, the Netherlands (Nederland) and Luxembourg. In the 19th century, three countries were united under the crown of the Dutch king from 1815 to 1830, until Belgium became independent. The forerunners of the Benelux Treaty were the economic union concluded between Luxembourg and Belgium on July 25, 1921.