Maastricht – Frederik de Wit, 1698

“Maestricht”. Copper engraving published in Amsterdam by Frederik de Wit in 1698 as part of his town book “Theatrum Ichnographicum Omnium Urbium et Praecipuorum Oppidorum Belgicarum XVII Provinciarum Peraccurate Delineatarum” [Ichnographic Theatre of all the Cities and Principal Towns of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, Very Accurately Delineated.] With original (?) hand colouring. Size: 41 x 52,5 cm.

Maastricht originated at a fordable crossing (“tricht”) in the River Maas. This location was inhabited long before Roman times. In the fourth century it became an episcopal city under Saint Servatius, the first bishop of the Netherlands. According to legend, Saint Servatius built the Church of Our Lady. The present church dates from the eleventh century. On the plan, the church is shown without a name in the south-eastern part of the city. This church formed the centre of Maastricht until the city walls were constructed in 1229. The new urban centre then became the Vrijthof. However, the seventeenth-century plan clearly shows that the city’s built-up area was still largely concentrated around the Church of Our Lady. On the Vrijthof stand two major churches: the Basilica of Saint Servatius and Saint John’s Church.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century Maastricht came under the rule of two overlords: the Duke of Brabant and the Prince-Bishop of Liège. For this reason, in the upper corners of the map—besides the municipal coat of arms (a white star on a red field)—the arms of Gerard van Groesbeek are also shown. He was Prince-Bishop of Liège from 1564 to 1580 and, from 1578, a cardinal (his arms crowned with the cardinal’s hat). Why does his coat of arms appear on the map?

To make this map, De Wit used a map by Johannes Janssonius from 1657. That, in turn, had been copied from a map published by Joan Blaeu in 1649, which itself was a faithful copy of a town plan from the Civitates Orbis Terrarum atlas by Braun & Hogenberg from 1581. Braun & Hogenberg placed three coats of arms on their map: centrally the city arms of Maastricht, and in the corners the arms of the two rulers, Gerard van Groesbeek and King Philip II (as Duke of Brabant). Blaeu omitted the royal arms and moved the city arms to the vacant corner. He did not take the trouble to look up the arms of the current prince-bishop of Liege (was was then Ferdinand of Bavaria). Neither did Janssonius nor De Wit .

Price: Euro 1.450,-