Palatinatus Bavarie

Title

Palatinatus Bavarie

Description

Map shows Middle Franconia and the Upper Palatinate with the cities of Nuremberg, Regensburg, Amberg, etc. and a title cartouche with the Bavarian coat of arms.

ca. 1610

Artist

Blaeu (1571-1638)

Joan Guilliemus Blaeu was the eldest son of Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638), and was probably born in Alkmaar in the province of Noord-Holland in the final years of the 16th century. He was brought up in Amsterdam, and studied law at the University of Leiden before going into partnership with his father in the 1630s. Although his father Willem had cartographic interests, having studied under the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and having manufactured globes and instruments, his primary business was as a printer. It was under the control of Joan that the Blaeu printing press achieved lasting fame by moving towards the printing of maps and expanding to become the largest printing press in Europe in the 17th century. By the 1660s the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (or Atlas Maior as it had became known by this time) had expanded to between 9 and 12 volumes, depending on the language. With over 3,000 text pages and approximately 600 maps, it was the most expensive book money could buy in the later 17th century. The translation of the text from Latin into Dutch, English, German, French, and Spanish for several volumes created enormous work for those involved in typography and letterpress activities. It is estimated that over 80 men must have been employed full-time in the Blaeu printing house in Bloemgracht, not including engravers who worked elsewhere, with over 15 printing presses running simultaneously, and in 1667 a second press was acquired at Gravenstraat. At the same time as producing the Atlas Maior, Blaeu was also publishing town plans of Italy, maps for globes, and other volumes. At its peak the Blaeu press managed to produce over 1 million impressions from 1,000 copper plates within four years.

Historical Description

The existence of a Bavarian tribal duchy has been documented since 555, which became part of the Frankish domain under the Merovingians. From 1180 to 1918 Bavaria was ruled by the Wittelsbachers as a territorial duchy. Bavaria experienced a period of numerous divisions into individual duchies from 1255 to 1503. Shortly before the first reunification, Ludwig IV. In 1328 became the first Wittelsbacher to become emperor, which meant a new high point in power for Bavaria. At the same time, however, the prince-archbishopric of Salzburg finally separated from the mother country Bavaria. In 1429, after the Straubing-Holland line became extinct, the Duchy of Bavaria-Straubing was divided between the Munich, Ingolstadt and Landshut lines. In 1447, Bavaria-Ingolstadt fell to Bavaria-Landshut, which in turn was won by Bavaria-Munich in the War of Succession in Landshut in 1503. The division of the country came to an end through the Primogenitur Act of Duke Albrecht IV of 1506. Bavaria took a leading position in the Counter-Reformation and emerged from the Thirty Years' War with territorial gains and the rise to the Electorate. In 1620, the troops of the Catholic League, under the leadership of the Bavarian general Tilly, defeated the Protestants in the Battle of the White Mountains near Prague. Then Tilly had the Palatinate occupied. As a thank you, Maximilian I received the electoral title in 1623 and the Upper Palatinate he occupied as war compensation in 1628. After the war, Elector Ferdinand Maria devoted himself to the reconstruction of the devastated country and pursued a cautious neutrality policy. During the War of the Spanish and Austrian Succession and in the course of Maximilian II. Emanuel's great power policy and later his son Karl Albrecht, Austria was twice temporarily occupied by absolutist Bavaria. In 1705 the Bavarian people rose against the imperial occupation. Only the battle of Aidenbach on January 8, 1706 ended with the complete defeat of the popular uprising. After Karl Albrecht's coronation, large parts of the electorate were occupied again until 1744. Karl Albrecht's son Maximilian III. Joseph finally ended the great power policy of his predecessors in 1745 and devoted himself to internal reforms. After the extinction of the old Bavarian line of the Wittelsbacher, the double electorate of Kurpfalz-Bavaria was created in 1777 under the reign of the Elector Karl Theodor from the Palatinate line of the Wittelsbacher. At the time of Napoleon, Bavaria was initially on the side of France and was able to record large territorial gains through secularization and mediatization. Salzburg, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and the Innviertel region, which was lost in 1779, fell temporarily to Bavaria. In the Peace of Pressburg, which was concluded on December 26, 1805 between France and the German Emperor Franz II, Bavaria, allied with Napoleon, was proclaimed a kingdom. King Max I. Joseph's Minister Maximilian Graf von Montgelas is considered the creator of the modern Bavarian state. In 1806 Napoleon Bonaparte elevated Bavaria to a kingdom. At the Vienna Congress in 1814, Bavaria was able to retain a large part of the area's profits as a victorious power, including what was now northern Bavaria, parts of Swabia and the Palatinate. In 1918 the Wittelsbach monarchy collapsed in the November Revolution. King Ludwig I, who had ruled since 1825, developed the Bavarian capital Munich into an art and university city. After the occupation by American troops, Bavaria became part of the newly founded Federal Republic in 1949.