Nova designatio Insulae Jamaicae…

  • Translation

Article ID AMW154

Title

Nova designatio Insulae Jamaicae…

Description

A very decorative map of Jamaica with beautiful cartouche.

Year

ca. 1720

Artist

Seutter (1678-1757)

Matthias Seutter (1678- 1757) Augsburg was the son of a goldsmith in Augsburg. In 1697, Seutter began his studies in Nuremberg and subsequently worked in the publishing house of Jeremias Wolff in Augsburg. In 1710, he established his own publishing house and print shop. The Seutter publishing house produced a great number of maps, atlases, and globes. However, very few original maps were printed there, as Augsburg at that time had no university and no connection to the fields of mathematics or the natural sciences. Seutter therefore copied the work of other cartographers, making his own engravings based on their models. Over 500 maps were produced in his studio. Seutter's most well-known works are the 1725 "Geographical Atlas or an Accurate Depiction of the Whole World" ("Atlas Geographicus oder Accurate Vorstellung der ganzen Welt") with 46 maps, the 1734 "Large Atlas" ("Grosser Atlas") with 131 maps, and the 1744 pocket atlas "Small Atlas" ("Atlas minor") with 64 maps. Matthäus Seutter died in 1757. Seutter's son Albrecht Karl, his son-in-law Conrad Tobias Lotter, and his business partner Johann Michael Probst ran the printing business for five more years.

Historical Description

In the 7th century BC the first Taíno (a people belonging to the Arawak) from South America reached the island. They lived in tribal communities and practiced agriculture and fishing. They built their houses out of reeds and straw. Small groups of the Caribbean came to Jamaica in the course of the 15th century. In contrast to the practice on many other islands, they did not expel the Taíno, but lived with them. When Christopher Columbus landed on Jamaica as the first European in 1494 during his second trip, about 100,000 people lived there. After a long dispute between Diego Columbus, the son of Christopher Columbus, and the Spanish crown over the possession of some Caribbean islands, he finally became viceroy of all the islands discovered by his father. He was given the right to keep a share of the gold found there and to levy taxes. In 1509 he had Jamaica taken over by Juan Ponce de León and called it Santiago. This name never became natural. The Spaniards also used the original Indian names Chaymakas or Xaymaca, which they twisted in Jamaica. Due to the enormous size and the difficult geographical conditions, Spain could never really protect its possessions in America - especially in the Caribbean. In the decades after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, but especially since the final decline of Spanish supremacy in the second half of the 17th century, the English, French and Dutch entered the Spanish sphere of power more and more. On 1655, English troops under Robert Venables and Admiral William Penn sen landed. in the place of today's Kingston. They had been sent by Oliver Cromwell to conquer bases in the Caribbean as part of the Western design. The administration in Spanish Town surrendered the next day, some of the remaining Spaniards fled to Cuba without a fight. In the hope of an uprising, they had previously freed their slaves and equipped them with weapons. There was no fighting at first, as the former slaves retreated to the inaccessible interior where they lived under the name of the Maroons. Despite the surrender, the last Spanish governor, Cristobal Arnaldo de Ysassi, gathered guerrilla troops on the north coast and inland. He received support from Cuba twice, but had to give up after two defeats against the English army in 1657 and 1658. In 1664, an elected assembly was established to perform local administrative functions. Jamaica formally became the property of Great Britain in 1670 through the Madrid Treaty.

Place of Publication Augsburg
Dimensions (cm)49 x 57
ConditionVery good
Coloringoriginal colored
TechniqueCopper print

Reproduction:

82.50 €

( A reproduction can be ordered individually on request. )