Sardinia.

Title

Sardinia.

Description

Map shows the Italian island of Sardinia with the cities of Sassari, Olbia, Chia, Cagliari, Bosa and many more.

ca. 1640

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

It is believed that the Sherds, often referred to as Shardana, a "sea people" coming from the eastern Mediterranean and known from Egyptian sources, settled here around 1200 BC. The Phoenician-Punic period in Sardinia began in the 9th century B.C. Since the 14th century B.C., Sardinia has been visited by seafarers from the eastern Mediterranean. Mycenaeans and Cypriots were already trading with the island at that time. Etruscan-Phoenician trade was also conducted in Sardinia from the 7th century. Following in the footsteps of the Levantine traders were the Punic, who were particularly interested in the ore deposits of Iglesiente. They founded not only trading posts in places like Karali (today Cagliari), and Othoca , Nora, Sulki ( Sulcis), Su Fraigu and Tharros, but also colonies. By the middle of the 6th century BC, the Punic had taken control of the south and west of Sardinia. They then began to transform their part of the island into a granary. Punic and Sardinian combined into one culture in the occupied territory from the 3rd century BC. The triangle of Ibiza, Corsica (including Sardinia) and Sicily represented, according to today's knowledge, the overseas continuation of the Carthaginian motherland. During the First Punic War, Rome had felt the strategic importance of Sardinia. After unsuccessful attempts to take control of the island, Rome had to recognize Carthage's sovereign rights over Sardinia in the peace treaty of 241 BC. Until the First Punic War, the Punic inhabitants of Carthage were nominally the masters of the island, although they never advanced into the interior, which was still largely autonomous well into Roman times (from 238 BC). With the conquest of Sulcis in 704, a period of more than two hundred years began in which the Arabs repeatedly raided the island's coasts. A large part of the coastal population fled to the interior of the island. The now isolated island was divided from the 9th century into four giudicati with local feudal rulers - "judges". The Arab fleets dominated the coasts. A permanent Arab conquest was prevented until 1014/15. The Hohenstaufen Frederick II (1198-1250), King of Sicily, appointed his illegitimate son Enzio King of Sardinia in 1239, from which came the island's status as a kingdom, which remained until its absorption into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs, Sardinia fell to the Austrian line of the House of Habsburg following the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, but was ceded to the ruling House of Savoy as early as 1720. The newly created Kingdom of Sardinia, with its capital Turin and its provinces of Savoy and Piedmont, now had its geographical center on the Italian mainland. It was not until 1946 that the island received autonomy as the Autonomous Region of Sardinia.