Siciliae veteris Typus.

Title

Siciliae veteris Typus.

Description

Decorative map of the Sicily island with three cartouches and an iset map of Syrakus.

ca. 1640

Artist

Janssonius/Goos (1588-1664)

Johannes Janssonius (Jansson),( 1588- 1664) Amsterdam was born in Arnhem, the son of Jan Janszoon the Elder,a publisher and bookseller. In 1612 he married Elisabeth de Hondt, the daughter of Jodocus Hondius. He produced his first maps in 1616 of France and Italy. In 1623 Janssonius owned a bookstore in Frankfurt am Main, later also in Danzig, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Königsberg, Geneva and Lyon. In the 1630s he formed a partnership with his brother in law Henricus Hondius, and together they published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius. Under the leadership of Janssonius the Hondius Atlas was steadily enlarged. Renamed Atlas Novus, it had three volumes in 1638, one fully dedicated to Italy. 1646 a fourth volume came out with English County Maps, a year after a similar issue by Willem Blaeu. Janssonius' maps are similar to those of Blaeu, and he is often accused of copying from his rival, but many of his maps predate those of Blaeu and/or covered different regions. By 1660, at which point the atlas bore the appropriate name Atlas Major, there were 11 volumes, containing the work of about a hundred credited authors and engravers. It included a description of most of the cities of the world (Townatlas), of the waterworld (Atlas Maritimus in 33 maps), and of the Ancient World (60 maps). The eleventh volume was the Atlas of the Heavens by Andreas Cellarius. Editions were printed in Dutch, Latin, French, and a few times in German.

Historical Description

The central location of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea has shaped the eventful history of this island. As bases for seafaring and trade, the cities of Sicily have always had great importance. Time and again, therefore, new conquerors seized the island, stayed, mixed with the already resident population and left their mark on the culture of Sicily. Only rarely was the island politically independent, mostly it was ruled by empires or states that had their political center elsewhere. From about 800 B.C. began the period of colonization by Phoenicians, mainly from the Phoenician planting city of Carthage, and somewhat later by Greeks, for whom Sicily became part of Greater Greece. In 264 BC, a Roman army crossed into Sicily, triggering a war with the Carthaginians that resulted in heavy losses. By late antiquity, Sicily was largely Romanized. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Sicily was first dominated by the Vandals and Ostrogoths and became part of the Eastern Roman-Byzantine Empire in the mid-6th century. The first attempt at Christian reconquest of the island was still a Byzantine initiative; the imperial commander Georgios Maniakes conquered Messina in 1038 and Syracuse in 1040. Now Sicily experienced another period of prosperity and became an independent kingdom in 1130. A symbiosis of Byzantine, Arab and Norman traditions produced many important works of art. Thereafter, Sicily again fell under the control of other powers: Aragon, Spain, Savoy and Austria followed one another. With the unification of Italy, which began with Garibaldi's invasion of Sicily, Sicily became part of the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861.