Candia / Corphu

Title

Candia / Corphu

Description

Two views on one sheet, above the town of Candia (now Iraklio) on the Greek island of Crete and below the island and town of Corfu with its old castle. The island of Creta is first described in texts from the Syrian city of Mari in the 18th century BC. BC called Kaptara, which are later repeated in Neoassyrian records and in the Bible (Caphtor). It was also known as Keftiu in ancient Egypt, strongly suggesting that a shape similar to both was the Minoan name for the island.

ca. 1650

Artist

Merian (1593-1650)

Matthäus Merian (1593 – 1650) , born in Basel, learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich and subsequently worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry. He married his daughter, Maria Magdalena 1617. In 1620 they moved back to Basel, only to return three years later to Frankfurt, where Merian took over the publishing house of his father-in-law after de Bry's death in 1623. In 1626 he became a citizen of Frankfurt and could henceforth work as an independent publisher. He is the father of Maria Sibylla Merian, who later published her the famous and wellknown studies of flowers, insects and butterflies.

Historical Description

Greek settlers from Eretria founded in the 8th century BC. A first colony. From 395 onwards, Corfu belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire. The island was conquered by the Saracens and in the 11th century by the Norman Duke Robert Guiscard. As a result of the 4th crusade, Corfu came under the rule of the despot of Epiros after 1204. As the dowry of Helena of Epirus, the island had been in Manfred's possession in Sicily in 1258. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, Corfu's history was marked by conflicts with the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over mainland Greece and repeatedly tried to conquer and hold the Ionian Islands. The Venetians (Republic of Venice) ordered the removal of the vineyards and the planting of olive trees. In 1716, the Ottoman siege of the island's capital was lifted by the Venetian army under Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg and the last attempt to conquer the island was finally repelled. After the end of the Republic of Venice in 1797, France (under Napoleon) took possession of the Ionian Islands and Corfu as the Corcyre department. For a short time, from 1798 to 1807, Corfu was a Russian protectorate. This was followed by another French period until 1814. In 1815 (Congress of Vienna), Corfu became part of the Republic of the Ionian Islands under British protectorate. After a vote in parliament, the Ionian Islands joined the Greek state in 1864, which had been independent since 1830 and to which they have belonged since.