Netherlands in the Middle Ages – Isaak Tirion, 1749

“Oude kaart der nu Vereenigde Nederlanden tot opheldering der vaderlandsche historie in de Middeleeuwe” [Old map of the present United Netherlands, for the explanation of national history in the Middle Ages]. Copper engraving published by Isaak Tirion in 1749 as part of Jan Wagenaar’s “Vaderlandsche Historie, vervattende de Geschiedenissen der nu Vereenigde Nederlanden” [National History, containing the histories of the present United Netherlands]. Coloured by a later hand. Size: 28.9 × 32.9 cm.

Jan Wagenaar (1709–1773) began publishing his Vaderlandsche Historie in the mid-18th century as an ambitious and wide-ranging history of the Netherlands. Isaak Tirion, one of the most important Amsterdam publishers of maps, atlases and historical works of the period, supplied several maps intended to support the text visually. This map is a fine example: an 18th-century view of the medieval past of the Northern Netherlands.

In the spirit of the Enlightenment, authors and publishers of the period sought not only to recount the past, but also to order, explain and make it geographically intelligible. Maps such as this made history visible: they gave the reader a framework for understanding old place names, shifting borders and vanished administrative divisions. National history was thus no longer presented merely as a chronicle, but as a coherent historical-geographical narrative.

Prijs: Euro 225,-