Helvetia.

Title

Helvetia.

Description

Map shows the whole of Switzerland.

ca. 1580

Artist

Porro (1520-1604)

Girolamo Porro (c. 1520 - after 1604) was an Italian engraver on wood and on copper. He was born at Padua, but worked during the greater part of his life in Venice. He engraved for a book entitled Imprese illustri di diversi, published by Camillo Camilli in 1535. He also executed the plates for the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, published at Venice in 1584 , for the Funerali antichi di diversi Popoli et Natione, by Tommaso Porcacchi, published in 1574 and the portraits for the Sommario delle Vite do' Duchi di Milano by Scipione Barbuo, 1574. The maps in Girolamo Ruscelli's translation of the Geographia of Ptolemy, 1574, and the maps in Porcacchi's Isole piu famose del Mondo, first published in 1572, are likewise by him.

Historical Description

Since 1848, the Swiss Confederation has been a federal state of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of confederacy that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics. The early history of the region is tied to that of Alpine culture. Switzerland was inhabited by Gauls and Raetians, and it came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC. Gallo-Roman culture was amalgamated with Germanic influence during Late Antiquity, with the eastern part of Switzerland becoming Alemannic territory. The area of Switzerland was incorporated into the Frankish Empire in the 6th century. In the high medieval period, the eastern part became part of the Duchy of Swabia within the Holy Roman Empire while the western part was part of Burgundy