Corsicae Antiquae Descriptio / Sardiniae Antiquae Descriptio

Title

Corsicae Antiquae Descriptio / Sardiniae Antiquae Descriptio

Description

The map shows Corsica and Sardinia, each with a title cartouche.

ca. 1690

Artist

Cluverus (Clüver) (1580-1622)

Philipp Clüver (Philippus Cluverius) 1580- 1622 was an Early Modern German geographer and historian. Clüver was an antiquary, who was given a special appointment at Leiden as geographer and put in charge of the university's library, but his life's project, it developed, was a general study of the geography of Antiquity, based not only on classical literary sources, but — and this was his contribution — supplemented by wide travels and local inspections. He became virtually the founder of historical geography. Clüver's Germaniae antiquae libri tres (Leiden, 1616) depends on Tacitus and other Latin authors. A volume on the antiquities of Sicily, with notes on Sardinia and Corsica (Sicilia Antiqua cum minoribus insulis ei adjacentibus item Sardinia et Corsica), published at Leiden by Louis Elsevier in 1619, is a useful source, with many reference from writers of Antiquity and maps that are often detached and sold to map collectors.

Historical Description

The name of the island of Corsica or French Corse probably goes back to the Phoenician term Korsai, which roughly means “covered with forests”. Occasionally, the Greek term for the island Kalliste (“the beautiful”) is thought to be the root of the current name. From the 14th century, Corsica belonged to the Republic of Genoa. In 1729, several years of uprisings against the Genoese began. On April 15, 1736, Corsican rebels made the German adventurer Baron Theodor von Neuhoff (1694-1756) their king in the monastery of Alesani in Castagniccia. King Theodor I of Corsica was the only king Corsica ever had. However, the Kingdom of Corsica lasted barely a year. Independence was proclaimed in 1755. Genoa then sold the island to France, which defeated the Corsican troops at the Battle of Ponte Nuovo in 1769. Corsica has been a French territory ever since - apart from a brief period during the French Revolution, when the island belonged to England.