Arragonia regnum. Auctore Joanne Baptista Sabanna.

Title

Arragonia regnum. Auctore Joanne Baptista Sabanna.

Description

Magnificent map of the whole of Aragon with elaborate coat of arms cartouches and coats of arms in the neighbouring provinces.

ca. 1686

Artist

Janssonius (1588-1664)

Johannes Janssonius (Jansson)( 1588- 1664) Amsterdam, was born in Arnhem, the son of Jan Janszoon the Elder, a publisher and bookseller. In 1612 he married Elisabeth de Hondt, the daughter of Jodocus Hondius. He produced his first maps in 1616 of France and Italy. In 1623 Janssonius owned a bookstore in Frankfurt am Main, later also in Danzig, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Königsberg, Geneva and Lyon. In the 1630s he formed a partnership with his brother in law Henricus Hondius, and together they published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius. Under the leadership of Janssonius the Hondius Atlas was steadily enlarged. Renamed Atlas Novus, it had three volumes in 1638, one fully dedicated to Italy. 1646 a fourth volume came out with ""English County Maps"", a year after a similar issue by Willem Blaeu. Janssonius' maps are similar to those of Blaeu, and he is often accused of copying from his rival, but many of his maps predate those of Blaeu and/or covered different regions. By 1660, at which point the atlas bore the appropriate name ""Atlas Major"", there were 11 volumes, containing the work of about a hundred credited authors and engravers. It included a description of ""most of the cities of the world"" (Townatlas), of the waterworld (Atlas Maritimus in 33 maps), and of the Ancient World (60 maps). The eleventh volume was the Atlas of the Heavens by Andreas Cellarius. Editions were printed in Dutch, Latin, French, and a few times in German.

Historical Description

The territory of the County of Aragón initially included the valleys of Hecho, Canfranc, Borau, Aísa and Araguás, and soon those of Ansó and Acumuer. Under Count Galindo I Aznárez (around 844 to 867), the county came under the suzerainty of the Kings of Pamplona. After the death of Sancho III in 1035, his son Ramiro I inherited Aragon, which thus became an independent kingdom. Ramiro expanded his domain, which had previously been limited to the Jacetania, by acquiring Ribagorza and Sobrarbe and by successfully fighting the Moors. Petronella and Raimund Berengar's son Alfonso II (* 1157) took over the rule of Catalonia as Count Alfonso I in 1162. The resulting community of states, which included Catalonia in addition to Aragon proper and later extended to a large part of the Mediterranean, is known as the Crown of Aragon (Spanish: Corona de Aragón ). Within this community of states, the individual territories - the Kingdom of Aragon in the narrower sense, Catalonia and later also the Kingdom of Valencia and other territories - retained their internal autonomy; only in the area of foreign policy were they united under a common monarch. From 1485 to 1699, Aragon was ruled by its own viceroys in the name of the Spanish kings. During the War of Independence against Napoleon, Napoleon's troops unsuccessfully besieged Aragon in the summer of 1808. After another two-month siege, Saragossa capitulated in 1809. In the three Carlist Wars of the 19th century, Upper Aragon (roughly the area of today's Huesca province) held resolutely to Queen Maria Christina of Sicily, while Lower Aragon (roughly today's Teruel province) held to the pretender Don Carlos. In the Spanish Civil War, southern Aragon in particular was the scene of fierce battles, the most famous of which were the Battle of Belchite following a Republican offensive on Zaragoza in September and October 1937 and the Battle of Teruel between December 1937 and February 1938. In 1982, King Juan Carlos I and Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo signed the law passed by the Spanish Cortes Generales, which included the Statute of Autonomy for Aragon.