L’Alsace, divisee en ses Principales Parties, dresse sur les Memoires les plus Nouveaux

Title

L’Alsace, divisee en ses Principales Parties, dresse sur les Memoires les plus Nouveaux

Description

The map shows the whole of Alsace divided into its counties: Breisgau with Freiburg, "Ortnaw" with Offenburg, Hanau, the Landgraviate of Sundgau (Upper Alsace) and Lower Alsace with Strasbourg and Baden. It also features a magnificent title cartouche and a cartouche showing distances.

c. 1675

Artist

Sanson/ Jaillot, Charles Hubert (1600-1667)

Nicolas Sanson (1600–1667) was a French cartographer, termed by some the creator of French geography, in which he's been called the father of French cartography. Active from 1627, Sanson issued his first map of importance, the ""Postes de France"", which was published by Melchior Tavernier in 1632. After publishing several general atlases himself he became the associate of Pierre Mariette, a publisher of prints. In 1647 Sanson accused the Jesuit Philippe Labbe of plagiarizing him in his Pharus Galliae Antiquae; in 1648 he lost his eldest son Nicolas, killed during the Fronde. Among the friends of his later years was the great Condé. He died in Paris on 7 July 1667. Two younger sons, Adrien (d. 1708) and Guillaume (d. 1703), succeeded him as geographers to the king. In 1692 Hubert Jaillot collected Sanson's maps in an Atlas nouveau. See also the 18th century editions of some of Sanson's works on Delamarche under the titles of Atlas de géographie ancienne and Atlas britannique; and the Catalogue des cartes et livres de géographie de Sanson (1702).

Historical Description

The history of Alsace, a region on the western edge of the German-speaking area, is shaped by the fruitful influence of two of Europe's great cultural areas: Germanic (German) and Romance (French). After the Great Migration, it was first Germanised and incorporated into the cultural currents of German history. Since modern times it has increasingly come under the political control of the French kingdom. Various forms emerged here, the Duchy of Alsace (7th – 8th centuries), the two landgravates of Alsace (12th – 17th centuries) and the early modern French province of Alsace (17th – 18th centuries). Today's Alsace was first settled by humans around 700,000 years ago and was one of the core regions of the Celts. After a period of unclear and changing power relations, Alsace became part of Alemannia until the 7th century, which was a more or less autonomous administrative district of the Franconian Empire. In 988 at the latest, Alsace became part of the Duchy of Swabia, with which it remained until the end of 1250. After 1250, a large number of different territories developed, most of which came under French rule between 1633 and 1697/1714. The French province of Alsace was established, its borders partially differing from those of the earlier landgravates. At the beginning of the French Revolution, all special political rights were abolished in 1789 and the two departments of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin were created in 1790. Between 1871 and 1918, Alsace, as part of Alsace-Lorraine, belonged to the German Empire, which was led by Prussia. In 1918 the two Alsatian districts came back to France as departments.