Strasbourg

Title

Strasbourg

Description

City centre view of Strasbourg with fountain in the foreground and the tower of Strasbourg Cathedral in the background.

ca. 1835

Artist

Prout (1783-1852)

Samuel Prout (born 17 September 1783 in Plymouth, Devon (England); died 10 February 1852 in London). He was an English painter, draughtsman and lithographer.

Historical Description

In the Middle Ages Strasbourg belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. The Müllenheim family and the Zorn family were the most important patrician families of Strasbourg at that time, whose rivalry for supremacy in the imperial city (1262 to 1681) was fought out in veritable street battles. Under the reign of these families, Strasbourg developed into one of the most important economic centers of the region. The climax of the violent confrontation between the Müllenheim and Zorn families was the so-called "Geschell der Müllenheim und Zorn" in 1332. as a result of which the city nobility was overthrown, because the real winners of this fight were the guilds. They ruled in the Fünfzehnerwörth (Fifteenth Council), which dealt mainly with the affairs of the guilds, crafts, trades and commerce. Thus, Strasbourg as a free city was one of the first small republics in the Holy Roman Empire. After the invention of printing in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg, Strasbourg quickly became an important center of book production. Strasbourg's printers made a significant contribution to the spread of the Reformation, as the city's extensive religious tolerance meant that writings by Martin Luther and other reformers could be published here early on. One third of the writings printed in the 16th century were Bibles or excerpts from them. In 1605, Johann Carolus published the news journal Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien here, which is considered the first printed newspaper in the world.