Italia in suos Status divisa et ex prototypo del ‘Isliano desumta..

Title

Italia in suos Status divisa et ex prototypo del ‘Isliano desumta..

Description

Map of the whole of Italy with Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and a title cartouche.

ca. 1742

Artist

Homann Erben (1724-1780)

Johann Babtiste Homann (1664-1724) 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

The history of Italy encompasses the developments in the territory of the Italian Republic from prehistory to the present. The history of Italy, documented by written sources, only begins after the colonization by Italian peoples. Alongside them, the Etruscan culture, whose origin is unclear, experienced around 600 BC. Their heyday. In the 8th century BC The Greek colonization of the southern Italian mainland and Sicily had begun, Phoenicians settled on the west coast of the island. These colonies later belonged to Carthage. Most of northern Italy were populated by Gauls. From the 4th century BC BC began the expansion of Rome. the conquest of the Mediterranean and later parts of Central and Northern Europe brought cultural influences and people from all over the empire and the neighboring areas to Italy. The peninsula was the center of the Roman Empire. A dense road network connected the expanding cities, thanks to which the exchange of goods, but also the dependence on external goods, such as wheat and olive oil from North Africa, increased. From the 5th century, Italy came under the rule of Germanic tribes, briefly Ostrom conquered the former core area of the empire in the 6th century. In the 8th century, the north, ruled by the Lombards for about two centuries, was annexed to the Frankish Empire, later to the Holy Roman Empire, while Arabs and Byzantines ruled the south. Feudalism prevailed in most regions in the early Middle Ages. The northern Italian municipalities, which came together in the Lombard League, for example, were able to break away from the influence of the empire in the 12th and 13th centuries and establish their own territories. Of this multitude of territories, the most important were Milan, the naval powers Genoa and Venice, Florence and Rome and southern Italy, which was partly French and partly Spanish. The fact that the Bishop of Rome rose to Pope of the Western Church and that the Eastern Church was separated from the Eastern Church in 1054 played a central role. The French King Philip IV forced the Pope into exile in Avignon in 1309, which lasted until 1378. The return of the popes to Rome accelerated the establishment of the papal state in central Italy, which until 1870 had a significant impact on political developments on the peninsula. From the 14th to the 16th centuries, Italy was the economic and cultural center of the Renaissance. Five leading powers had emerged, with the Papal State playing a role of its own. From the late 15th, but especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, the major European powers - France, Spain and Austria - repeatedly interfered in Italian politics. They sealed off their markets to different degrees from foreign goods. At the same time, the Ottoman Empire exerted heavy military pressure, especially on the Republic of Venice, from the late 14th century. After four centuries of fragmentation and foreign rule, the peninsula was politically united in the course of the national movement of the Risorgimento. The modern Italian state has existed since 1861, Veneto and Friuli were added in 1866, followed by Julisch Venetia (Trieste and Gorizia), Trentino and South Tyrol after the First World War.