Curlande, Livonie, Ingrie et Partie meridionale de Finlande.

Title

Curlande, Livonie, Ingrie et Partie meridionale de Finlande.

Description

The map shows the Baltic States, which today comprise the whole of Estonia and Latvia. It also shows southern Finland and part of Russia.

c. 1749

Artist

Vaugondy,de (1723-1786)

Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723 -1786) also known as Le Sieur or Monsieur Robert, and his son, were leading cartographers in France during the 18th century. In 1757, Gilles and Didier Robert De Vaugondy published The Atlas Universel, one of the most important atlases of the 18th century. To produce the atlas, the Vaugondys integrated older sources with more modern surveyed maps. They verified and corrected the latitude and longitude of many regional maps in the atlas with astronomical observations. The older material was revised with the addition of many new place names. In 1760, Didier Robert de Vaugondy was appointed geographer to Louis XV. Gilles and Didier Robert De Vaugondy produced their maps and terrestrial globes working together as father and son. Globes of a variety of sizes were made by gluing copperplate-printed gores on a plaster-finished papier-mache core, a complicated and expensive manufacturing process, employing several specialists. In some cases it is uncertain whether Gilles or Didier made a given map. Gilles often signed maps as M.Robert, while Didier commonly signed his maps as ""Robert de Vaugondy"", or added ""fils"" or ""filio"" after his name. The Robert de Vaugondys were descended from the Nicolas Sanson family through Sanson's grandson, Pierre Moulard-Sanson. From him, they inherited much of Sanson's cartographic material, which they combined with maps and plates acquired after Hubert Jaillot's death in 1712 to form the basis the Atlas Universel.

Historical Description

The Baltic States (Latin Balticum) is an area in Europe, which today includes the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic is named after the Central Latin name for the Baltic Sea as mare balticum, the "Baltic Sea". This term had been in use since the 11th century and first appeared with Adam von Bremen. The use of „mare balticum“ can be traced back to the name of a large island with rich amber deposits in northern Europe, which the ancient Roman scholar Pliny the Elder mentioned as Baltia or Balcia, actually probably Abalcia, and which was identified with the Prussian coast in the Middle Ages . The commercial cities were able to secure far-reaching freedoms within the order and achieved great wealth, especially in the 15th century, when they dominated the Baltic Sea trade as members of the Hanseatic League. The Baltic port cities were therefore culturally strongly influenced by Germany, Denmark and Sweden and have preserved this legacy in many aspects to this day. The reign of the Order over the territory of what is now Estonia and Latvia (Old Livonia) ended in the mid-16th century during the Reformation. In the Livonian War, Russia failed to conquer Livonia, but the contested territory came under the rule of its opponents, whom Livonia called for help. Livonia and Courland came under Polish sovereignty, Estonia became Swedish and the island of Saaremaa / Øsel Danish. Lithuania remained independent as it established a first alliance and treaty union with Poland, the Union of Krewo, in 1385, the others followed, and in 1569 led to the establishment of the noble republic of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.