Novissima Arragoniae Regni Tabula Authore Ioanne Baptista Labanna.

Title

Novissima Arragoniae Regni Tabula Authore Ioanne Baptista Labanna.

Description

Map shows the whole of Aragon in Spain, with title and coat-of-arms cartouches.

ca. 1628

Artist

Hondius (1597-1650)

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

The territory of the County of Aragón initially included the valleys of Hecho, Canfranc, Borau, Aísa and Araguás, and soon those of Ansó and Acumuer. Under Count Galindo I Aznárez (around 844 to 867), the county came under the suzerainty of the Kings of Pamplona. After the death of Sancho III in 1035, his son Ramiro I inherited Aragon, which thus became an independent kingdom. Ramiro expanded his domain, which had previously been limited to the Jacetania, by acquiring Ribagorza and Sobrarbe and by successfully fighting the Moors. Petronella and Raimund Berengar's son Alfonso II (* 1157) took over the rule of Catalonia as Count Alfonso I in 1162. The resulting community of states, which included Catalonia in addition to Aragon proper and later extended to a large part of the Mediterranean, is known as the Crown of Aragon (Spanish: Corona de Aragón ). Within this community of states, the individual territories - the Kingdom of Aragon in the narrower sense, Catalonia and later also the Kingdom of Valencia and other territories - retained their internal autonomy; only in the area of foreign policy were they united under a common monarch. From 1485 to 1699, Aragon was ruled by its own viceroys in the name of the Spanish kings. During the War of Independence against Napoleon, Napoleon's troops unsuccessfully besieged Aragon in the summer of 1808. After another two-month siege, Saragossa capitulated in 1809. In the three Carlist Wars of the 19th century, Upper Aragon (roughly the area of today's Huesca province) held resolutely to Queen Maria Christina of Sicily, while Lower Aragon (roughly today's Teruel province) held to the pretender Don Carlos. In the Spanish Civil War, southern Aragon in particular was the scene of fierce battles, the most famous of which were the Battle of Belchite following a Republican offensive on Zaragoza in September and October 1937 and the Battle of Teruel between December 1937 and February 1938. In 1982, King Juan Carlos I and Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo signed the law passed by the Spanish Cortes Generales, which included the Statute of Autonomy for Aragon.