Abriß der Dreyen, gegeneinander Correspondierenden Vestungen Monaco, Capo di Sant Spirito, und Niza die Provenza

Title

Abriß der Dreyen, gegeneinander Correspondierenden Vestungen Monaco, Capo di Sant Spirito, und Niza die Provenza

Description

Map shows Monaco, Capo di Sant Spirito and Nizza

ca. 1660

Artist

Merian (1593-1650)

Matthäus Merian (1593 – 1650) , born in Basel, learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich and subsequently worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry. He married his daughter, Maria Magdalena 1617. In 1620 they moved back to Basel, only to return three years later to Frankfurt, where Merian took over the publishing house of his father-in-law after de Bry's death in 1623. In 1626 he became a citizen of Frankfurt and could henceforth work as an independent publisher. He is the father of Maria Sibylla Merian, who later published her the famous and wellknown studies of flowers, insects and butterflies.

Historical Description

Around 600 BC began the systematic colonization of the coast of Provence by Greeks from the Asia Minor city of Phocaea. The Phocaeans had come under pressure from the Persians and, during their voyages along the Mediterranean coast, had discovered the port basin of the later city of Marseille, created by nature. There is a legend according to which the Celtic king Nann was looking for a husband for his daughter Gyptis and gave his daughter the free choice. She chose a beautiful Greek stranger. On this they are said to have founded the city of Marseilles, then Massalia (later Massilia). This city experienced a tremendous increase in population. The city slowly began to develop into a large trading settlement, trading even with the distant Celtic tribes in what is now northern Germany. Above all, the good location by the sea made Massalia so successful. After almost 600 years as a Roman province, the land was conquered by the Visigoths in 470/477. From 934 on, Provence belonged to the united Kingdom of Burgundy, and from 1032 to the Holy Roman Empire due to an inheritance treaty that came to fruition. In 1498, the part of Provence that belonged to France at that time was incorporated into the Domaine royal, from 1660 the territory was administered like a province and in 1789, in the course of the French Revolution, it was divided into departments. Only the parts of Provence located in the Maritime Alps (also called the Maritime Alps), which had become independent over time (for example, the County of Nice and the Principality of Monaco), remained with the Holy Roman Empire, and some of them joined France only later.