Mets. / Metis

Title

Mets. / Metis

Description

A bird’s-eye view of the city of Metz in Lorraine, featuring a title, a map legend and figurative staffage in the foreground. The reverse side features a Latin description of the city of Metz, p. 15. Date of this map: 1581-1588

ca. 1581

Artist

Braun/Hogenberg (1572-1618)

Frans Hogenberg (1535 – 1590) was a Flemish and German painter, engraver, and mapmaker. Hogenberg was born in Mechelen as the son of Nicolaas Hogenberg In 1568 he was banned from Antwerp by the Duke of Alva. He travelled to London, where he stayed a few years before emigrating to Cologne. He is known for portraits and topographical views as well as historical allegories. He also produced scenes of contemporary historical events. George Braun (1541-1622), a cleric of Cologne, was the principal editor of the "Civitates Orbis Terrarum". The first volume of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum was published in Cologne in 1572. The sixth and the final volume appeared in 1617. This great city atlas, edited by Georg Braun and largely engraved by Franz Hogenberg, eventually contained 546 prospects, bird-eye views and map views of cities from all over the world. Braun (1541-1622), a cleric of Cologne, was the principal editor of the work, and was greatly assisted in his project by the close, and continued interest of Abraham Ortelius, whose Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of 1570 was, as a systematic and comprehensive collection of maps of uniform style, the first true atlas.

Historical Description

The area around the Moselle, populated mainly by Celtic tribes, was conquered by Gaius Iulius Caesar in the Gallic War between 58 and 51 BC and later became part of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From a division of the Frankish Empire into three parts, the Lotharii Regnum, the "Empire of Lothar" or Lotharingia, named after its king, emerged in 843. s lay in the middle between the East and West Frankish Empires and originally stretched as an elongated territory from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. In 870, the area was again divided between the East and West Frankish Empires. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Metz became Frankish and later the capital of the Merovingian sub-kingdom of Austrasia. In the High Middle Ages, Metz developed into a prosperous Free Imperial City within the Holy Roman Empire, shaped by trade, church building, and city walls. In 1552, Metz was occupied by France and was later definitively made French in the Peace of Westphalia (1648). However, the city remained culturally and linguistically influenced by German for a long time.