Peruuiae Auriferae Regionis Typus. / La Florida. Auctore Hieron. Chiaues. / Guastecan Reg.

Title

Peruuiae Auriferae Regionis Typus. / La Florida. Auctore Hieron. Chiaues. / Guastecan Reg.

Description

Three maps on one sheet: Peru, with Panama, Ecuador, Colombia / Florida with Virginia and the east coast of Mexico around Tampica. In addition, four cartouches and two sailing ship stafages.

ca. 1570

Artist

Ortelius (1527-1598)

Abraham Ortelius, (1527 - 1598) Antwerp, comes from an Augsburg family and was born in Antwerp, Spain, where he lived throughout his life. After thorough training, he joined the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1547 as a card painter. In 1554 he took over an antiquarian bookshop that mainly deals with the coloring, distribution and publishing of maps. Basically he is more of a publisher than a scholar. And so he also made the acquaintance of another great man of his time, Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594), who encouraged him to draw cards and to make maps of the most varied of countries. His first cartographic work of his own is a large 8-sheet map of the world that appears in Antwerp in 1564. This is followed by a two-sheet map of Egypt (1565) and another of Asia (1567). The great achievement of Ortelius, who was one of the most famous European cartographers of his time, and the enthusiastic reception of his theater, mark a decisive turning point in the history of the world map. The new path is mapped out with the Theatrum. For the general view of the world, the appearance of Ortelius-Theatrum is important insofar as it emphatically confirms that America is a completely independent continent, which is also not connected to the Asian mainland mass at its northern tip. Ortelius was the first to come up with the idea of ​​producing a handy collection of reliable maps, all kept in the same format and only by the same author for each country. These sheets could also be bound into a book for easy storage and use. Mercator, who also realized the idea of ​​a world atlas from 1569, persuaded his friend to publish the famous Theatrum Orbis Terrarrum. Ortelius collected, traveled, corresponded and negotiated for 10 years before he could have his work printed in the best European printing house (Plantijn / Amsterdam). In addition to technical difficulties, Ortelius had to submit to the political / religious conditions, since maps were also subject to strict scrutiny during the Inquisition. Biblical scenes are pleasant, portraits of outstanding Catholics are welcome, but not family coats of arms or other emblems that could be politically suspect. On May 20, 1570, his first edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first collection of maps in book form, was published, financed and edited by Gillis Hooftman, an Antwerp merchant, banker and shipowner. Atlases did not yet have this name at that time. This collection was published between 1570 and 1612 in 42 editions and in 7 languages: Latin, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, English and Italian. Unlike his professional colleagues, he clearly referenced the sources of his maps and texts. The work contains, among other things, an illustration of the world known until 1492 and was therefore already looking back at the time the map was created.

Historical Description

Virginia received its name in honor of Queen Elizabeth I of England from Walter Raleigh during his expedition in 1584, when he It is known as the Sunshine State. The peninsula of the same name was discovered by the Spanish explorers during Easter and named after it: Easter also means Pascua Florida in Spanish. The east coast of Florida was discovered in 1513 by the Spaniard Juan Ponce de León. In 1521 Ponce de León - equipped and accompanied by a group of settlers - traveled again to Florida to found a colony there for Spain, which was destroyed by the indigenous population. In 1528 the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez, who hoped to find gold in Florida, explored the west coast of the peninsula, but also failed due to the hostility of the locals. Narváez eventually suffered a shipwreck, but his officer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca survived, returned to Spain and was able to report on the expedition there. Hernando de Soto was encouraged to try an invasion again in 1539. Like Narváez, De Soto landed on the west coast and embarked on an extensive expedition through the southeast of what is now the USA, but neither gold nor a suitable location for the founding of a colony was found, so that the Spaniards after De Soto's death Expedition tasks. In 1562, the Frenchman Jean Ribault, who was looking for a possible settlement for Huguenot emigrants, explored the mouth of the St. Johns River on the east coast of Florida. In 1586 San Agustín was attacked and plundered by the English privateer and later Vice Admiral Francis Drake. In the 17th century, English settlers in Virginia and the Carolinas continually tried to push the Spanish colony border further south. The French settlers on the lower reaches of the Mississippi River did the same. In 1702, the colonial governor of South Carolina, Colonel James Moore, had the town of San Agustín destroyed with the help of allied Muskogee Indians; however, he was unable to capture the Spanish fort. Two years later, Moore began burning Spanish missions in northern Florida and killing Indians who were on good terms with the Spaniards. In western Florida, the French took over the Spanish settlement in Pensacola, which had been in existence again since 1696, in 1719. After the Seven Years' War, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain, which in turn gave the Spanish control of Havana. The indigenous people of Florida died thousands after the arrival of the first Spaniards because they were not immune to the diseases they introduced. Whole nations have been wiped out, and it is believed that after the British takeover of Florida, the Spaniards brought the few Indians who had survived their Catholic missions to Cuba to safety. In the course of the 18th century, however, the peninsula was again populated by Indians when parts of the Muskogee that had split between themselves began to flow in from the north. As a result of the Yamasee War, many Yuchi and Yamasee refugees also came to Florida. Despite their heterogeneous roots, these Indians were uniformly referred to as "Seminoles".