Argentoriatum. Strasburg.

Title

Argentoriatum. Strasburg.

Description

Large and very decorative view of Strassbourg with detailed description of the omportant houses and buildings.

ca. 1750

Artist

Probst (1721-1781)

Georg Balthasar Probst (1732–1801), Georg Balthasar Probst was a German artist, engraver and publisher in Augsburg, a major European publishing center in the 17th and 18th centuries. He produced architectural views of places around the world intended as vues d’optiques, which were published in various places during the last half of the 18th century, including Paris, Augsburg and London. He was also known for his portraits. Probst came from an extended family of printers, whose businesses can all be traced back to the publishing firm of Jeremias Wolff (1663-1724). After Wolff's death his firm was continued as “Wolff’s Heirs” (Haeres Jer. Wolffii) by his son-in-law Johann Balthasar Probst (1689-1750). After Probst’s death in 1750, his descendants divided the business and published under their own imprints: Johann Friedrich Probst (1721-1781), Georg Balthasar Probst (1732-1801) and Johann Michael Probst. Another part of the Wolff-Probst firm was acquired by the Augsburg publisher Johann Georg Hertel (1700-1775), whose son Georg Leopold Hertel had married a sister of the Probsts. In the next generation, Georg Mathäus Probst (d. 1788), son of Georg Balthasar Probst, also became an engraver of portraits and views.

Historical Description

In the Middle Ages Strasbourg belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. The Müllenheim family and the Zorn family were the most important patrician families of Strasbourg at that time, whose rivalry for supremacy in the imperial city (1262 to 1681) was fought out in veritable street battles. Under the reign of these families, Strasbourg developed into one of the most important economic centers of the region. The climax of the violent confrontation between the Müllenheim and Zorn families was the so-called "Geschell der Müllenheim und Zorn" in 1332. as a result of which the city nobility was overthrown, because the real winners of this fight were the guilds. They ruled in the Fünfzehnerwörth (Fifteenth Council), which dealt mainly with the affairs of the guilds, crafts, trades and commerce. Thus, Strasbourg as a free city was one of the first small republics in the Holy Roman Empire. After the invention of printing in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg, Strasbourg quickly became an important center of book production. Strasbourg's printers made a significant contribution to the spread of the Reformation, as the city's extensive religious tolerance meant that writings by Martin Luther and other reformers could be published here early on. One third of the writings printed in the 16th century were Bibles or excerpts from them. In 1605, Johann Carolus published the news journal Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien here, which is considered the first printed newspaper in the world.