Galliae Veteris Typus.

Title

Galliae Veteris Typus.

Description

Map shows all of France with Belgium and two cartouches. Based on the map of the same name by Abraham Ortelius. Back with German description.

ca. 1636

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

It is estimated that today's France was settled about 48,000 years ago. Important rock paintings from the Paleolithic period have been preserved in the Lascaux cave From 600 BC Chr. Phoenician and Greek traders founded bases on the Mediterranean coast, while Celts settled from the northwest the country that was later called by the Romans as Gaul. The French Middle Ages were marked by the rise of kingship in the constant struggle against the independence of the nobility and the secular violence of the monasteries and religious orders. Starting from today's Île-de-France, the Capetinians enforced the idea of a unitary state, which was underpinned by participation in various crusades. The Normans invaded Normandy repeatedly, hence its name; in 1066 they conquered England. A long series of armed conflicts with England began under Louis VII after Ludwig's divorced wife Eleonore von Poitou and Aquitaine married Heinrich Plantagenet in 1152 and thus about half of France's territory fell to England. Philip II August, together with the Hohenstaufen family, largely displaced England from France until 1299; the English king Henry III Ludwig IX. recognize as suzerain. From 1226 France became an inheritance monarchy; in 1250 Ludwig IX was one of the most powerful rulers in the West. In the 17th and 18th centuries, France held European leadership and supremacy. The political and cultural charisma was significant: The court of Louis XIV became the model for absolutist states throughout Europe and the French Revolution with the declaration of human and civil rights, together with occupations by Napoleon Bonaparte, started in many countries the time and again Setbacks interrupted development towards democracy.