Veldten.

Title

Veldten.

Description

City map of Velden an der Pegnitz from a bird's-eye view with a title loop, a city index and the Velden coat of arms at the top right.

ca. 1644

Artist

Merian (1593-1650)

Matthäus Merian (1593 – 1650) , born in Basel, learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich and subsequently worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry. He married his daughter, Maria Magdalena 1617. In 1620 they moved back to Basel, only to return three years later to Frankfurt, where Merian took over the publishing house of his father-in-law after de Bry's death in 1623. In 1626 he became a citizen of Frankfurt and could henceforth work as an independent publisher. He is the father of Maria Sibylla Merian, who later published her the famous and wellknown studies of flowers, insects and butterflies.

Historical Description

Velden is a town in the Middle Franconian administrative district of Nürnberger Land and the seat of the Velden administrative community. About the origin of the traffic-geographically favorable at important north-south connections through the middle Franconian Alps located place there is so far no sure knowledge. Like other places with the suffix feld in the East Franconian-Bavarian border region, the place name suggests a foundation during the Carolingian period. In 1009 Velden with the associated forestis was transferred to the bishop of the newly created diocese of Bamberg as part of extensive royal donations by King Henry II. In the 14th century Velden belonged for some time to the New Bohemian possessions of Emperor Charles IV, who granted the town charter in 1376. After it reverted to the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach in 1401, Velden again largely sank into insignificance. During the Landshut War of Succession, the town was seized several times by the parties involved in the conflict. After this war had ended in July 1505 with the Cologne arbitration award by King Maximilian, the town and its surrounding office passed into the possession of the imperial city of Nuremberg and were subsequently incorporated into its territory as the Pflegamt Velden.