Limburgensis ducatus nova descriptio auct. Aegidio Mart.

Title

Limburgensis ducatus nova descriptio auct. Aegidio Mart.

Description

Map partly shows Belgium with Limburg, Liege and a title cartouche.

ca. 1620

Artist

Hondius/Sparke (1563-1612)

Jodocus Hondius (1563 –1612) was a Dutch engraver, and cartographer. He is best known for his early maps of the New World and Europe, for re-establishing the reputation of the work of Gerard Mercator, and for his portraits of Francis Drake. He helped establish Amsterdam as the center of cartography in Europe in the 17th century. He was born in Wakken and grew up in Ghent. In his early years he established himself as an engraver, instrument maker and globe maker. In 1584 he moved to London to escape religious difficulties in Flanders. While in England, Hondius was instrumental in publicizing the work of Francis Drake, who had made a circumnavigation of the world in the late 1570s. In particular, in 1589 Hondius produced a now famous map of the bay of New Albion, where Drake briefly established a settlement on the west coast of North America. Hondius' map was based on journal and eyewitness accounts of the trip and has long fueled speculation about the precise location of Drake's landing, which has not yet been firmly established by historians. Hondius is also thought to be the artist of several well-known portraits of Drake that are now in the National Portrait Gallery in London. In 1593 he moved to Amsterdam, where he remained until the end of his life. In co-operation with the Amsterdam publisher Cornelis Claesz. in 1604 he purchased the plates of Gerard Mercator's Atlas from Mercator's grandson. Mercator's work had languished in comparison to the rival Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Ortelius. Hondius republished Mercator's work with 36 additional maps, including several which he himself had produced. Despite the addition of his own contributions, Hondius gave Mercator full credit as the author of the work, listing himself as the publisher. Hondius' new edition of Mercator's work was a great success, selling out after a year. Hondius later published a second edition, as well as a pocket version Atlas Minor. The maps have since become known as the ""Mercator/Hondius series"" . In the French edition of the Atlas Minor we find one of the first instances of a thematic map using map symbols. This is a map entitled Designatio orbis christiani (1607) showing the dispersion of major religions. Between 1605 and 1610 he was employed by John Speed to engrave the plates for Speed's The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. Hondius died, aged 48, in Amsterdam. After his death, his publishing work in Amsterdam was continued by his widow, two sons, Jodocus II and Henricus, and son-in-law Johannes Janssonius, whose name appears on the Atlas as co-publisher after 1633. Eventually, starting with the first 1606 edition in Latin, about 50 editions of the Atlas were released in the main European languages. In the Islamic world, the atlas was partially translated by the Turkish scholar Katip Çelebi. The series is sometimes called the ""Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius"" series because of Janssonius's later contributions.

Historical Description

As the province of Belgica - a name introduced by Caesar - what is now Belgium experienced many rulers. From the High Middle Ages to the early modern period, the cities of Flanders with their cloth industries represented one of the two centers of the European economy. Politically, the individual territories came under the House of Burgundy, which was inherited by the Habsburgs in 1477. In 1579 the Catholic Union of Arras and the Calvinist-Protestant Union of Utrecht were formed. The provinces of the Union of Utrecht broke away from Spain in 1581 and founded the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, whose independence was recognized in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 after the end of the Eighty Years War. The provinces of the Union of Arras, Flanders and Brabant were administered as the Spanish Netherlands by a Spanish governor. After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs (1700) and the resulting War of the Spanish Succession, the Austrian Netherlands came under the rule of the Austrian Habsburgs in 1714. As a result of the absolutist-centralistic efforts of the Austrian ruler Joseph II, the Brabant Revolution came in 1789 and the short-lived United Belgian States. Revolutionary France annexed the Austrian Netherlands between 1792 and 1794, followed by incorporation into the French Republic in 1795. At the Congress of Vienna (1815) the provinces were awarded to the Netherlands. After the Belgian Revolution, the country gained independence in 1830.