La Pomerania

Title

La Pomerania

Description

Map shows total Pommern

dated 1689

Artist

Cantelli da Vignola (1643-1695)

Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola (1643 - 1695) was an important Italian cartographer and engraver Cantelli was born in Montorsello, near Vignola Italy to a prominent local family. After studying literature at the University of Bologna, Cantelli took a position as secretary to the Marquis Obizzi de Ferrara. Eventually Cantelli relocated to Venice where developed an interest in cartography. He later traveled to Paris in the company of the French ambassador where became acquainted with the French cartographer Guillaume Sanson, as well as his contemporaries Jacques-Andre Duval and Michel-Antoin Baudrand. It was most likely the influence of these innovative French cartographers that inspired Cantelli's careful and meticulous approach, in which he based his cartography not just on earlier maps, but also very much in the French style upon accounts written by travelers and merchants regarding actual travel to foreign lands. Back in Italy, Cantelli took service Count Rinieri Marescotti, with whom he traveled extensively throughout Italy, becoming in the process acquainted with the Italian publisher Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi. It is with Rossi that Cantelli began officially publishing his maps. The earliest maps to bear the Cantelli-Rossi imprint date to 1672 and detail the Holy Land, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire. Around 1680 the duo also began to publish the Mercurio Geografico, a large format atlas illustrating all parts of the world in a splendid Italian baroque detail defined by elaborate finely engraved cartouche work, high quality paper, and bold Roman lettering, and dark rich inks. Some have compared his style go that of Giovanni Antonio Magini, another Italian cartographer of the previous generation. Cantelli da Vignola in fact pioneered the Italian style of fine bold engraving that would eventually be embraced and expanded upon by Vincenzo Coronelli. His work drew the attention of Pope Innocent XI and Reggio Francesco II d'Este, the Duke of Modena, both of whom offered him a position as court geographer. Cantelli chose to work with the Due of Modena, in the service of whom he produced numerous maps and well as two large globes.

Historical Description

The province of Pomerania, located in the north German lowlands, was the Prussian province formed from the Duchy of Pomerania after the Vienna Congress in 1815. It consisted of western Pomerania and Western Pomerania. Pomerania's capital was Szczecin. Through the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Hinterpommern came to Brandenburg and Vorpommern became Swedish-Pommern. The Brandenburg Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I succeeded in conquering all of Swedish Pomerania in 1678, but he had to forego the majority of the conquered areas under pressure from France in the Peace of Saint-Germain (1679). After the end of the Great Northern War (1700-1721), the part of Western Pomerania south of the Peene came to Prussia (Old Western Pomerania). During the territorial reorganization of Europe in 1815, the last part of Western Pomerania, which remained Swedish, became Prussian with the island of Rügen (New Western Pomerania). At the same time, Pomerania received the districts of Dramburg and Schivelbein as well as the northern parts of the Arnswalde district with the town of Nörenberg from the Neumark, which otherwise remained with the province of Brandenburg.