{"id":27929,"date":"2025-10-10T10:31:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inter-antiquariaat.nl\/en\/antiek\/niet-gecategoriseerd\/markgraafschap-antwerpen-willem-blaeu-1635\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:37:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:37:41","slug":"margraviate-of-antwerp-willem-blaeu-1635","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/inter-antiquariaat.nl\/en\/antiques\/maps\/maps-the-netherlands\/brabant-and-limburg\/margraviate-of-antwerp-willem-blaeu-1635\/","title":{"rendered":"Brabant, Margraviate of Antwerp – Willem Blaeu, 1635"},"content":{"rendered":"

THIRD QUARTER OF BRABANT \u2013 THE MARGRAVIATE OF ANTWERP<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Tertia<\/strong> pars Brabantiae qua continetur Marchionat. S.R.I. horum Urbs primaria Antverpia.<\/strong>” <\/em>[Third part of Brabant, comprising the Marquisate of the Holy Roman Empire, whose principal city is Antwerp.]
Copper engraving after the design by Michael van Langren <\/a>(\u201cRegiae Majestatis Mathematicus\u201d<\/em>), published in Amsterdam by Willem Jansz. Blaeu <\/strong><\/a>in 1635<\/strong> as part of his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Atlas Novus<\/em>. With original hand colouring. Size: 41.5 \u00d7 51.5 cm.<\/p>\n

This map depicts the third quarter of the Duchy of Brabant<\/a>, the so-called\u00a0Margraviate of Antwerp <\/span>\u2014 one of the four quarters into which Brabant was administratively divided since the late Middle Ages (together with Brussels, Leuven, and \u2019s-Hertogenbosch).<\/p>\n

In the lower left corner appears an elaborate scale cartouche with four units of measurement (German, Brabantine, Italian miles, and rods\/feet), flanked by three figures symbolising the art of surveying: one with a compass, another with a globe, and a third holding a Jacob\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

At the bottom centre is a large title cartouche adorned with the coats of arms of Antwerp, Bergen-op-Zoom, Lier, and Breda. The accompanying figure represents a merchant holding Mercury\u2019s staff \u2014 an emblem of trade and prosperity.<\/p>\n

In Blaeu\u2019s day, this region formed a contested frontier between the Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands. After the Twelve Years\u2019 Truce <\/a>(1609\u20131621), the Scheldt estuary remained closed; Antwerp lost its position as a world port but retained great prestige and ecclesiastical importance.<\/p>\n

On the verso, Blaeu provides an extensive French description of the Margraviate <\/span>of Antwerp, combining history, etymology, and contemporary observation. He calls it \u201cthe noblest part of Brabant\u201d<\/em> and discusses the origins of Antwerp with reference to Julius Caesar\u2019s Commentarii de Bello Gallico<\/em><\/a>. Some believed the people descended from the Atuatuci<\/a>, others from the Ambivariti; Blaeu favours the latter, whose territory lay between the Meuse and the Scheldt. The ancient name Antverpia<\/em>, he argues, derives not from the legend of Silvius Brabo <\/a>and the giant Druon Antigoon<\/a> \u2014 who \u201cthrew hands\u201d into the Scheldt \u2014 but from the Flemish Aen-werpen<\/em> or Aen-de-Werve<\/em>, meaning \u201cat the wharf\u201d or \u201con the riverbank.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then turns to the Margraviate <\/span>itself, which he traces back to medieval feudal relations within the Holy Roman Empire. Through (the mythical) Theodoric and Charlemagne<\/a>, its authority supposedly passed to the kings of Spain and the House of Austria. Antwerp, he writes, was the \u201ccradle of many princes and emperors<\/em>,\u201d from which Godfrey of Bouillon <\/a>set forth on his crusade to the Holy Land. The city, according to Blaeu, was \u201cancient, spacious, and well built<\/em>,\u201d rich in churches, convents, and hospitals, enlarged by the Dukes of Brabant and later by Charles V<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Quoting Guicciardini, Blaeu notes Antwerp\u2019s prosperity: in 1568 the city counted more than 100,000 inhabitants and 50,000 in the suburbs, with hundreds of ships arriving daily and an international population of Spaniards, Englishmen, Italians, and Germans. Antwerp, he writes, possessed \u201cthe finest houses in Europe, built rather for princes than for citizens,\u201d a city as strong as it was beautiful. He concludes by recalling the disasters that befell Antwerp \u2014 fires, wars, and decline \u2014 and ends with the elevation of the Church of Our Lady<\/a> to cathedral status in 1559 by Pope Paul IV<\/a>, at the request of King Philip II of Spain<\/a>, appointing Philippus Nigrius <\/a>as its first bishop.<\/p>\n

Price: \u20ac 425-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THIRD QUARTER OF BRABANT \u2013 THE MARGRAVIATE OF ANTWERP “Tertia pars Brabantiae qua continetur Marchionat. S.R.I. horum Urbs primaria Antverpia.” [Third part of Brabant, comprising the Marquisate of the Holy Roman Empire, whose principal city is Antwerp.]Copper engraving after the design by Michael van Langren (\u201cRegiae Majestatis Mathematicus\u201d), published in Amsterdam by Willem Jansz. Blaeu […]\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[1425,1411,1407,1412,1408],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-27929","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blaeu-willem","product_cat-brabant-and-limburg","product_cat-europe","product_cat-maps","product_cat-maps-the-netherlands","product_cat-maps-world","first","instock","sold-individually","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\nold map Brabant Margraviate of Antwerp Low Countries history<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"old map Brabant Margraviate of Antwerp Low Countries history originel engraving\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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