Württemberg (Herzogtum)

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Original antique copper engraving, uncolored, published 1579 in the atlas ,Theatrum Orbis Terrarum' by A. Ortelius. This decorative map is engraved with a title cartouche in the upper margin. This is the first map by Abraham Ortelius showing the duchy of Württemberg, published from 1570 onwards up to 1581. This map was replaced then later by the doublepage map "Wirtenberg Ducatus ... " after G. Gadner from 1579 onwards. Engraved by Franz Hogenberg. The map shows the duchy of Wurtemberg, in the Southeast with Ulm, Stuttgart in the centre and in the North with the neighbouring Heidelberg. Ortelius was born on 14 April 1527 in the city of Antwerp, which was then in the Habsburg Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). The Orthellius family were originally from Augsburg, a Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1535, the family had fallen under suspicion of Protestantism. Following the death of Ortelius's father, his uncle Jacobus van Meteren returned from religious exile in England to take care of Ortelius. Abraham remained close to his cousin Emanuel van Meteren, who would later move to London. In 1575 he was appointed geographer to the king of Spain, Philip II, on the recommendation of Arias Montanus, who vouched for his orthodoxy. He travelled extensively in Europe and is specifically known to have traveled throughout the Seventeen Provinces; in southern, western, northern, and eastern Germany (e.g., 1560, 1575–1576); France (1559–1560); England and Ireland (1576); and Italy (1578, and perhaps twice or thrice between 1550 and 1558). Beginning as a map-engraver, in 1547 he entered the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as an illuminator of maps. He supplemented his income trading in books, prints, and maps, and his journeys included yearly visits to the Frankfurt book and print fair, where he met Gerardus Mercator in 1554. In 1560, however, when travelling with Mercator to Trier, Lorraine, and Poitiers, he seems to have been attracted, largely by Mercator's influence, towards the career of a scientific geographer. (Wikipedia)

Circulus Sive Liga Sueviae, Vulgo schwabische Kraiß.