Tabula Moderna Gallie

Title

Tabula Moderna Gallie

Description

Map shows totlal France with Belgium.

ca. 1513

Artist

Ptolemy/Waldseemüller- Johann Schott (1477-1550)

Johann Schott (1477-1550). He reissued maps after Martin Waldessemueller. Schott was well known for his atlas : Tabula Moderna Germanie, reussued the Martin Waldseemueller maps from 1482 including 20 detailed region maps which makes the atlas of Johann Schott one oft he most important works of those days. Schott is also well known for his atlases: "Alexandri Magni"and "Margarita philosophica". Martin Waldseemüller was born some time in the 1470's in Radolfzell, Württemberg, in Germany. He began his education at the University of Freiburg in 1490. In 1507, he moved to Saint-Dié in Lorraine, France. Here, according to Hébert, Waldseemüller became a member of a small intellectual circle called Gymnasium Vosagense. He died in France in 1522. He was the author of the wall map of 1507, which named America for the first time. In that same year it is believed he completed the maps for an edition of Ptolemy's 'Geography'. It was not until 1513 though that it was published. Martin Waldseemüller, a highly accomplished scholar of geography, merged the science of mapmaking and the art of printing in this 1513 atlas, one of the most groundbreaking documents in the history of cartography. He intended this atlas as a new edition of Ptolemy's Geographia. In the group of Ptolemaic atlases this one is very important because it incorporates 20 modern maps which were not based upon the tradition of Ptolemy. Waldseemüller's use of a quadratic plane projection, was also a noteworthy advance. Johannes Schott was the printer, and the drawings were done by Martin Waldseemülller. The editors of the text were Jacobus Aeschler and Goeorge Uebel. Rene Duke of Lorraine, an art and science patron of the Renaissance period, made it possible for Waldseemüller to draw new maps in addition to copying those of Ptolemy. Waldseemueller abandoned Ptolemy's projection in favor of one based on rectilinear meridians and parallels. Although these newly drawn maps were completed in 1507, Waldseemüller's patron died in 1508, and it was not until 1512 the work could be printed. In addition to the twenty-six classical Ptolemaic maps, this atlas was accompanied by a supplement of twenty new maps that was published as a separate volume. In a forward written by Äschler and Uebel, we are told that that the map of the New World was drawn according to the newest and most reliable information, the source of which is identified as The Admiral. Researchers today believe that The Admiral is Columbus and for that reason call this atlas the Admiral Atlas. This atlas was printed using the same woodcut maps but with a few minor text corrections on the Schott press in Augsburg with uebel acting as editor. Claudius Ptolemy Geographia, gives a list of geographic coordinates of spherical longitude and latitude of almost ten thousand point locations on the earth surface, as they were known at his times. The list is organized in Tabulae which cor- respond to specific regions of the three known continents at that time, Africa, Asia and Europe. Research on Ptolemy’s Geographia has started at the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in the eighties, focused mainly, but not exclusively, on data re- lated to territories which are now under the sovereignty of the modern Greek state. The World of Ptolemy (arround 100- 160 a.C.) is classified in Regions, since each Chapter is referred to one of them, giving by this way the concept of Atlas as it is understood today. Most maps have a watermark of a triple pointed crown.

Historical Description

It is estimated that today's France was settled about 48,000 years ago. Important rock paintings from the Paleolithic period have been preserved in the Lascaux cave From 600 BC Chr. Phoenician and Greek traders founded bases on the Mediterranean coast, while Celts settled from the northwest the country that was later called by the Romans as Gaul. The French Middle Ages were marked by the rise of kingship in the constant struggle against the independence of the nobility and the secular violence of the monasteries and religious orders. Starting from today's Île-de-France, the Capetinians enforced the idea of a unitary state, which was underpinned by participation in various crusades. The Normans invaded Normandy repeatedly, hence its name; in 1066 they conquered England. A long series of armed conflicts with England began under Louis VII after Ludwig's divorced wife Eleonore von Poitou and Aquitaine married Heinrich Plantagenet in 1152 and thus about half of France's territory fell to England. Philip II August, together with the Hohenstaufen family, largely displaced England from France until 1299; the English king Henry III Ludwig IX. recognize as suzerain. From 1226 France became an inheritance monarchy; in 1250 Ludwig IX was one of the most powerful rulers in the West. In the 17th and 18th centuries, France held European leadership and supremacy. The political and cultural charisma was significant: The court of Louis XIV became the model for absolutist states throughout Europe and the French Revolution with the declaration of human and civil rights, together with occupations by Napoleon Bonaparte, started in many countries the time and again Setbacks interrupted development towards democracy.