Le Cercle de la Haute Saxe, ou sont Le Duche et Electorat de Saxe, les Marquisats de Misnie et de Lusace le Landgraviat de Thuringe,..

Title

Le Cercle de la Haute Saxe, ou sont Le Duche et Electorat de Saxe, les Marquisats de Misnie et de Lusace le Landgraviat de Thuringe,..

The map shows Saxony and Thuringia with two magnificent cartouches and a coat of arms.

c. 1696

Artist

Jaillot/ Sanson (1632-1712)

Alexis Hubert Jaillot (1632–1712) was a prominent French cartographer and publisher. In 1665, he married into the Berey family of map publishers. After the death of his brother-in-law Nicolas II Berey in 1667, Jaillot bought the Berey map collection from his sister-in-law, acquiring a valuable stock without having ever created a map himself. Jaillot entered the map business at a favorable time—after Louis XIV’s early victories in the Reunions Wars in 1668, France’s territory expanded rapidly, creating high demand for maps showing French triumphs, new borders, and expansion plans. His collection included plates originally made by Pierre Duval, who resisted Jaillot’s reissues. At the height of this conflict, Jaillot gained the support of Guillaume and Adrien Sanson, sons of Nicolas Sanson, as mapmakers and partners, enabling him to publish new maps under the prestigious Sanson name. His first atlas, Atlas Nouveau (1681), was a commercial success, leading to widespread piracy by other publishers.

Historical Description

Saxony-Wittenberg, in modern Saxony-Anhalt, became subject to the margravate of Meissen, ruled by the Wettin dynasty in 1423. This established a new and powerful state, occupying large portions of the present Free State of Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Bavaria (Coburg and its environs). Although the centre of this state was far to the southeast of the former Saxony, it came to be referred to as Upper Saxony and then simply Saxony, while the former Saxon territories were now known as Lower Saxony. In 1485, Saxony was split. A collateral line of the Wettin princes received what later became Thuringia and founded several small states there (see Ernestine duchies). The remaining Saxon state became still more powerful and was known in the 18th century for its cultural achievements, although it was politically weaker than Prussia and Austria, states which oppressed Saxony from the north and south, respectively.