Tabula Moderna Gallie

Title

Tabula Moderna Gallie

Map shows totlal France with Belgium.

ca. 1513

Artist

Ptolemy/Waldseemüller- Johann Schott (1477-1550)

Johann Schott (1477–1550) reissued Martin Waldseemüller’s maps, including 20 detailed regional maps in his atlas Tabula Moderna Germanie, making it one of the most important works of its time. Schott is also known for the atlases Alexandri Magni and Margarita philosophica. Martin Waldseemüller (born c. 1470s, Radolfzell, Germany) studied at Freiburg University and later moved to Lorraine, France, where he joined the intellectual circle Gymnasium Vosagense. He died in 1522. Waldseemüller created the 1507 wall map that first named America and completed maps for a 1513 edition of Ptolemy’s Geography. His atlas merged cartographic science with printing art and included 20 modern maps alongside Ptolemaic ones, using a new quadratic projection. Johannes Schott printed the atlas, with Waldseemüller providing the drawings. Editors Jacobus Äschler and George Uebel worked on the text. Supported by René, Duke of Lorraine, Waldseemüller developed new maps abandoning Ptolemy’s projection for rectilinear meridians and parallels. Due to the Duke’s death, printing was delayed until 1512. The atlas included 26 classical Ptolemaic maps plus 20 new ones published separately. The New World map was based on recent, reliable information attributed to “The Admiral,” believed to be Columbus, leading to the atlas being called the Admiral Atlas. Schott printed a version with minor corrections in Augsburg. Ptolemy’s Geographia (c. 100–160 AD) listed geographic coordinates for nearly 10,000 locations across Africa, Asia, and Europe, organized into regions—an early concept of an atlas. Research on this work, notably at the University of Thessaloniki, continues today. Most maps bear a watermark of a triple-pointed crown.

Historical Description

It is estimated that today's France was settled about 48,000 years ago. Important rock paintings from the Paleolithic period have been preserved in the Lascaux cave From 600 BC Chr. Phoenician and Greek traders founded bases on the Mediterranean coast, while Celts settled from the northwest the country that was later called by the Romans as Gaul. The French Middle Ages were marked by the rise of kingship in the constant struggle against the independence of the nobility and the secular violence of the monasteries and religious orders. Starting from today's Île-de-France, the Capetinians enforced the idea of a unitary state, which was underpinned by participation in various crusades. The Normans invaded Normandy repeatedly, hence its name; in 1066 they conquered England. A long series of armed conflicts with England began under Louis VII after Ludwig's divorced wife Eleonore von Poitou and Aquitaine married Heinrich Plantagenet in 1152 and thus about half of France's territory fell to England. Philip II August, together with the Hohenstaufen family, largely displaced England from France until 1299; the English king Henry III Ludwig IX. recognize as suzerain. From 1226 France became an inheritance monarchy; in 1250 Ludwig IX was one of the most powerful rulers in the West. In the 17th and 18th centuries, France held European leadership and supremacy. The political and cultural charisma was significant: The court of Louis XIV became the model for absolutist states throughout Europe and the French Revolution with the declaration of human and civil rights, together with occupations by Napoleon Bonaparte, started in many countries the time and again Setbacks interrupted development towards democracy.