Livonia

Title

Livonia

Description

Decorativ map of Lettland and Estland with its bodering countiries, showing the city of Riga.

ca. 1595

Artist

Mercator (1512-1594)

Gerardus Mercator (1512 - 1594). He was a cartographer, philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for his work in cartography, in particular the world map of 1569 based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines. He is renowned to the present day as the cartographer who created a world map based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines. In his own day he was the world's most famous geographer but in addition he had interests in theology, philosophy, history, mathematics and magnetism as well as being an accomplished engraver, calligrapher and maker of globes and scientific instruments. He wrote few books but much of his knowledge is to be found in the copious legends on his wall maps and the prefaces that he composed for his atlas ,the first in which the term "atlas" appears and the sections within it.

Historical Description

The Baltic States (Latin Balticum) is an area in Europe, which today includes the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic is named after the Central Latin name for the Baltic Sea as mare balticum, the "Baltic Sea". This term had been in use since the 11th century and first appeared with Adam von Bremen. The use of „mare balticum“ can be traced back to the name of a large island with rich amber deposits in northern Europe, which the ancient Roman scholar Pliny the Elder mentioned as Baltia or Balcia, actually probably Abalcia, and which was identified with the Prussian coast in the Middle Ages . The commercial cities were able to secure far-reaching freedoms within the order and achieved great wealth, especially in the 15th century, when they dominated the Baltic Sea trade as members of the Hanseatic League. The Baltic port cities were therefore culturally strongly influenced by Germany, Denmark and Sweden and have preserved this legacy in many aspects to this day. The reign of the Order over the territory of what is now Estonia and Latvia (Old Livonia) ended in the mid-16th century during the Reformation. In the Livonian War, Russia failed to conquer Livonia, but the contested territory came under the rule of its opponents, whom Livonia called for help. Livonia and Courland came under Polish sovereignty, Estonia became Swedish and the island of Saaremaa / Øsel Danish. Lithuania remained independent as it established a first alliance and treaty union with Poland, the Union of Krewo, in 1385, the others followed, and in 1569 led to the establishment of the noble republic of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.