Veue de Nice

Title

Veue de Nice

Description

Map shows the city of Nice as total bird´s eye view.

ca. 1650

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

Probably around 350 BC, the Phocaeans from the area around Marseilles defeated the Ligurians and founded Νίκαια Níkaia ("the Victorious", after Nike, the goddess of victory). n the fifth century, Cemenelum was abandoned in favor of Nikaia. Provence fell to the Ostrogoths in 508, and to the Frankish Empire in 536. In 813, 859, and 880, Nice was sacked by Saracen invaders who came from the sea. Also in the following period (e.g. in 943) the city was at the mercy of Muslim attacks. The Muslims had established themselves in the nearby Fraxinetum from 888 until around 975, before Count William of Provence was able to drive them out. In 1144 a city council ("Consulat") is mentioned, in 1176 a first city constitution. However, Nice remained subject to the County of Provence, so that in the twelfth century the city was Aragonese and from 1246 belonged to the House of Anjou. In the 13th century, competition with Genoa became increasingly noticeable, which even briefly gained suzerainty over the city around 1215. In 1524, Francis I of Valois-Angoulême passed through the county of Nice to assert French claims in Lombardy against the Habsburgs. Two years later, a truce between Francis I and Charles V was negotiated in Nice through the mediation of Pope Paul III. In 1543, the siege and sack of Nice by the French troops and the fleet of Khair ad-Din Barbarossa took place; the citadel was held. According to local tradition, it was a washerwoman, Catherine Ségourane, who, as a "Joan of Arc of Nice", forced the Turks to leave. In 1600, Henry IV had the city besieged. On the occasion of the Peace of Lyon of 1601, Nice remained with the Duchy of Savoy, which established one of the three courts of the country here in 1614. In 1744, during the War of the Austrian Succession, Franco-Spanish troops conquered the county, which, however, was again granted to Savoy in the Peace of Aachen of 1748. In 1749, the Bassin Lympia, today's port, was created. In 1793, after a referendum, the county was annexed to France and became the 85th département with the name Alpes-Maritimes.