Antiquariat Reinhold Berg eK
Wahlenstraße 8
D-93047 Regensburg
phone: +49 - 941 52229
cellphone: +49 - 160 9060 6746
mail: [email protected]

Mercator, Gerard

Palatinatus Bavariae

Antique Palatinatus Bavariae
€195.00

Prices incl. VAT plus shipping costs

On stock,
Delivery time appr. 1-3 workdays

Eigenschaften
  • Amsterdam
  • 1630
  • Copper engraving / Original color.
  • 1630
  • Bavaria
  • map
  • 37.5 x 50,2 cm (14.75 x 19,75 inches).
  • 33510
  • In good condition. Sheet browned, oxidation from the old coloring visible on the reverse.

Article description

Article description

Copper engraving, hand colored in outline when published. The maps shows upper Bavaria with the neighboring Bohemia woods, the 'Fichtelgebirge' and Nürnberg. In the south the course of the Danube. Gerardus Mercator (5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) was a 16th-century geographer, cosmographer and cartographer from the County of Flanders. He is most renowned for creating the 1569 world map based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing (rhumb lines) as straight lines—an innovation that is still employed in nautical charts. Mercator was one of the pioneers of cartography and is widely considered the most notable figure of the school in its golden age (approximately 1570s–1670s). In his own day, he was a notable as maker of globes and scientific instruments. In addition, he had interests in theology, philosophy, history, mathematics and geomagnetism. He was also an accomplished engraver and calligrapher. Unlike other great scholars of the age he travelled little and his knowledge of geography came from his library of over one thousand books and maps, from his visitors and from his vast correspondence (in six languages) with other scholars, statesmen, travellers, merchants and seamen. Mercator's early maps were in large formats suitable for wall mounting but in the second half of his life, he produced over 100 new regional maps in a smaller format suitable for binding into his Atlas of 1595. This was the first appearance of the word Atlas in reference to a book of maps. However, Mercator used it as a neologism for a treatise (Cosmologia) on the creation, history and description of the universe, not simply a collection of maps. He chose the word as a commemoration of the Titan Atlas, "King of Mauretania", whom he considered to be the first great geographer. A large part of Mercator's income came from sales of his terrestrial and celestial globes. For sixty years they were considered the finest in the world, and were sold in such great numbers that there are many surviving examples. This was a substantial enterprise involving the manufacture of the spheres, printing the gores, building substantial stands, packing and distributing all over Europe. He was also renowned for his scientific instruments, particularly his astrolabes and astronomical rings used to study the geometry of astronomy and astrology. Mercator wrote on geography, philosophy, chronology and theology. All of the wall maps were engraved with copious text on the region concerned. As an example the famous world map of 1569 is inscribed with over five thousand words in fifteen legends. The 1595 Atlas has about 120 pages of maps and illustrated title pages but a greater number of pages are devoted to his account of the creation of the universe and descriptions of all the countries portrayed. His table of chronology ran to some 400 pages fixing the dates (from the time of creation) of earthly dynasties, major political and military events, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and eclipses. He also wrote on the gospels and the old testament. Mercator was a devout Christian born into a Catholic family at a time when Martin Luther's Protestantism was gaining ground. He never declared himself as a Lutheran but he was clearly sympathetic and he was accused of heresy by Catholic authorities; after six months in prison he was released unscathed. This period of persecution is probably the major factor in his move from Catholic Leuven (Louvain) to a more tolerant Duisburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, where he lived for the last thirty years of his life. Walter Ghim, Mercator's friend and first biographer, describes him as sober in his behaviour, yet cheerful and witty in company, and never more happy than in debate with other scholars. Above all he was pious and studious until his dying days. (Wikipedia)


You might also be interested in the following products

Antique Le Cercle de Baviere qui Comprend le haut Palatinat, les Duches de Haute et Basse Baviere et de Neuburg, L Archeveche de Salzburg, les Eveches de Ratisbonne, de Freisingen, de Passau et la Prevote de Berchtolsgaden, Par le Sr. Robert Geog. ord. du Roy. A Venise Par P. Santini 1778. Chez M.R ne. Le Cercle de...
Copper engraving, hand colored in outline. The map first appeared in Santini's Atlas Universel in 1776-79 in...
€225.00
Antique Le Cercle de Baviere, subdivise en tous les Estats qui le Composent Dresse sur le Memoires les plus Nouveaux Parle Sr. Sanson, Geopgraphe Ordinaire du Roy A Pais chez H. Jailott... Le Cercle de...
Kupferstichkarte, in zeitgenössischem Grenzkolorit. Mit großer, prächtiger, allegorischer Kartusche, sowie...
€550.00
Antique Lindau im boden See - der Boden See Lindau im boden...
Original antique copper engraving, uncolored as published. This fine engraving shows the bavarian city Lindau at the...
€95.00
Antique Glyptothek Glyptothek
Altkolorierte Lithographie der Biedermeierzeit von J. Werner , erschienen in dem von Gustav Kraus herausgegebenen...
€125.00
Recently viewed products