Ducatus Slesvicensis in omnes ejusdem Generales et particulares….

Title

Ducatus Slesvicensis in omnes ejusdem Generales et particulares….

Description

Map shows the territory of Schleswig, with magnificent allegorical cartouche.

ca. 1710

Artist

Homann (1664-1724)

Johann Babtiste Homann (1664-1724), Nuremberg, was born in Oberkammlach, the Electorate of Bavaria. Although educated at a Jesuit school, and preparing for an ecclesiastical career, he eventually converted to Protestantism and from 1687 worked as a civil law notary in Nuremberg. He soon turned to engraving and cartography; in 1702 he founded his own publishing house. Homann acquired renown as a leading German cartographer, and in 1715 was appointed Imperial Geographer by Emperor Charles VI. Giving such privileges to individuals was an added right that the Holy Roman Emperor enjoyed. In the same year he was also named a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Of particular significance to cartography were the imperial printing privileges (Latin: privilegia impressoria). These protected for a time the authors in all scientific fields such as printers, copper engravers, map makers and publishers. They were also very important as a recommendation for potential customers. In 1716 Homann published his masterpiece Grosser Atlas ueber die ganze Welt (Grand Atlas of all the World). Numerous maps were drawn up in cooperation with the engraver Christoph Weigel the Elder, who also published Siebmachers Wappenbuch. Homann died in Nuremberg. He was succeeded by the Homann heirs company, which was in business until 1848. The company was known as Homann Erben, Homanniani Heredes, or Heritiers de Homann abroad.

Historical Description

After the Angling wave of emigration, Danish and Jutian settlers advanced northeast into the country. Around 770 they founded Haithabu, one of the most important trading centers of the early Middle Ages, and with the Danewerk they built a protective wall against the Saxons. In the course of the Saxon Wars, the southern part of the country came under the influence of the Franconian Empire. Between 768 and 811 there were repeated confrontations between the King of the Franconian Empire and later Christian Emperor Charlemagne and the pagan northern Germans, in the course of which the Danewerk was expanded. In a peace treaty in 811, the Eider was established as the border between the Carolingian and Danish empires. With the increasing settlement in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Eider border lost its real meaning as a dividing line, but it remained until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and until 1864 as the border between Schleswig and Holstein. In the early 13th century the Danish king tried to integrate Holstein into his empire. However, after initial successes, it failed in the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227 due to resistance from north German princes. In 1460, after the Schauenburgs died out, the Schleswig-Holstein knighthood directly elected the Danish King Christian I from the House of Oldenburg as sovereign, he was a nephew of the last Schauenburger Adolf VIII. While the Thirty Years War broke out in the south of the empire in 1618, they stayed Schleswig and Holstein were spared fighting for the time being and experienced a high phase due to the profitable agriculture. n the course of the 17th century, the contrast between the ducal and royal parts led to increasing conflicts between the two parties. The Gottorf Duchy demanded greater sovereignty and turned away from Denmark and instead turned to the Kingdom of Sweden. This culminated at the end of the century in a multiple occupation of the ducal portion by Denmark. The Great Northern War broke out at the beginning of the 18th century. Gottorf stood on the side of Sweden, which after the defeat of the kingdom in 1713 led to the complete annexation of the ducal share in Schleswig by Denmark. The former Gottorf Duchy then only had holdings in Holstein, the annexation was declared legal in the Peace of Frederiksborg in 1720. In 1800 the whole of Schleswig-Holstein - with the exception of the Principality of Lübeck and the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg - was under Danish administration. The city of Altona, today a district of Hamburg, was the second largest city in the kingdom after Copenhagen. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark found itself on the loser's side with broken finances. The emergence of nationalism in both Denmark and Germany led to a contradiction in terms of who the so-called Elbe duchies belonged to, which resulted in two wars. In both Germany and Denmark, the country was fully claimed by the nationally-minded liberals, although it was divided into a predominantly Danish-speaking and Danish-minded north and a predominantly German-speaking and German-minded south. The disagreement between the two areas led to the Schleswig-Holstein uprising, in which the German-minded people tried in vain to end Danish sovereignty. The London Protocol of 1852 guaranteed the continued existence of the entire state and stipulated that Schleswig should not be bound closer to the kingdom than Holstein, and the entire state was restored.