Geograph.delineation des zu denen Kursächsischen Landen gehörigen Marggraftums Oberlausitz….

Title

Geograph.delineation des zu denen Kursächsischen Landen gehörigen Marggraftums Oberlausitz….

Description

Map shows Upper Lusatia with Bautzen, Görlitz, Zittau and Loebau. A title cartouche at top left, an index at bottom left, a mileage scale cartouche at bottom right and a compass rose at top centre.

ca. 1759

Artist

Schenk (1660-1718)

Petrus Schenck, (1660 – 1711) was a German engraver and cartographer active in Amsterdam and Leipzig. Valck was married to Maria Bloteling, the sister of the Amsterdam engraver Abraham Bloteling. In 1687 Schenk married Gerard's sister Agatha Valck. In 1694, together with Valck, he bought some of the copperplates of the artdealer and cartographer Johannes Janssonius. Along with Valck and Bloteling, he produced prints for the London market, though it is not known if he ever went there with them.

Historical Description

Saxony-Wittenberg, in modern Saxony-Anhalt, became subject to the margravate of Meissen, ruled by the Wettin dynasty in 1423. This established a new and powerful state, occupying large portions of the present Free State of Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Bavaria (Coburg and its environs). Although the centre of this state was far to the southeast of the former Saxony, it came to be referred to as Upper Saxony and then simply Saxony, while the former Saxon territories were now known as Lower Saxony. In 1485, Saxony was split. A collateral line of the Wettin princes received what later became Thuringia and founded several small states there (see Ernestine duchies). The remaining Saxon state became still more powerful and was known in the 18th century for its cultural achievements, although it was politically weaker than Prussia and Austria, states which oppressed Saxony from the north and south, respectively.