Comm rer. Germ. Liber III / Costantz

Title

Comm rer. Germ. Liber III / Costantz

Description

Map shows the city of Constanz at the lake Bodensee

ca. 1620

Artist

Bertius (1565-1629)

Petrus Bertius (1565 -1629) was a Flemish theologian, historian, geographer and cartographer, He grew up in Beveren (Flanders). In 1593 he was appointed mathematics professor and librarian of the University of Leyden. His main cartographic work includes a miniature world atlas of 1600, a pocket atlas of the German Empire of 1616 with 26 engraved maps and 101 city views, a version of the Geographia of Ptolemy with 28 maps by Mercator and 14 maps from the Parergon of Ortelius of 1618, but he is known today as a cartographer with his edition of the Geographia of Ptolemy (based on Mercator's edition of 1578) and for his atlas.

Historical Description

Baden-Wuertemberg is a state in southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the border with France. It is is formed from the historical territories of Baden, Prussian Hohenzollern, and Württemberg, and also parts of Swabia. Baden Würtemberg was only founded in 1952 by the merger of the states of Württemberg-Baden, Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. Today the most populous city of Baden-Württemberg is the state capital Stuttgart, followed by Karlsruhe and Mannheim. Other major cities are Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Ulm, Heilbronn, Pforzheim and Reutlingen. The early modern period was marked by the Reformation and the expansion efforts of the emerging states of Austria, Prussia, France and Sweden. Conflicts such as the Peasant War, the Thirty Years' War and the Palatinate War of Succession resulted from these. One of the focal points of the fighting, with corresponding consequences for the population and the economy, was in what is today Baden-Württemberg, which remained extremely fragmented territorially. At the beginning of the 19th century, around 300 states still had territorial rights in what is now Baden-Württemberg, but their number was reduced to four after the dissolution of the Old Empire. The Kingdom of Württemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden were among the winners of the coalition wars. The two principalities of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen survived mediatization due to their special relationship with Napoléon. In 1849, the Baden Revolution was put down by Prussian intervention forces, the Baden army was dissolved and rebuilt under Prussian leadership. In 1850 the two Hohenzollern states became the Prussian province of Hohenzollernsche Lande. With the new formation of the tribal duchies, the southern areas of what is now the state of Baden-Württemberg belonged to the Duchy of Swabia until the end of the High Middle Ages, the northern areas were located with the Duchy of Franconia.