Geneve Genff

Title

Geneve Genff

Description

Map shows a plan of the city of Geneva in Switzerland.

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

Geneva was a fortified border town of the Allobroges against the Helvetii in the Celtic period. It came under Roman rule around 120 BC. From 400 to 1536 it was a bishop's see, and in the fifth and ninth centuries it also functioned as the seat of the Burgundian kings. In 1526 Geneva joined a confederation of cities together with Bern and Fribourg. The French reformer John Calvin founded the Geneva Academy, now the University of Geneva, in 1559. From 1540 to 1700, Geneva had become an important refuge and new home for Italian and French Protestant refugees. The immigrant families, however, were not only a burden for the city, but also a social and economic enrichment through their education and knowledge in silk production and trade and in the art of watchmaking, which they brought with them and settled in Geneva and the surrounding area.