42 • Cartography in the German Lands, 1450–1650
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42 • Cartography in the German Lands, 1450 –1650 Peter H. Meurer Introduction the degree of their subjection under royal sovereignty dif- fered greatly. They included the secular dominions The state structure in the heart of central Europe was a (duchies, counties, and baronies) as direct or indirect group of individual regions that in some cases were po- fiefs; the ecclesiastical territories (dioceses and imperial litically and culturally very independent. Additionally, abbeys) somewhat outside the immediate feudal struc- many developments and influences affected these regions ture; the imperial cities; and, as a special case, the king- differently for more than two eventful centuries—from dom of Bohemia, a fief of the German crown since 1198, about 1450 to 1650. This highly complex situation is re- but which was also ruled by kings from non-German dy- flected with unusual clarity in the history of cartography.1 nasties. The main criterion for affiliation with the king- Parallel events and continuities in space and time can be dom of Germany was the right to attend meetings of the recognized in only a few cases. Taken as a whole, Re- joint parliament (Reichstag). naissance cartography in that area is a mosaic of individ- Along with the German lands were the two “side lands” ual parts differing in type and importance, and the sys- (Nebenländer), united with the German crown since the tematic structure applied here is only one of several Middles Ages: the kingdom of Italy, which, after 1454, logical possibilities. At the threshold of the modern age, “Germany” was a Abbreviations used in this chapter include: Karten hüten for Joachim federation of more than six hundred territories that had Neumann, ed., Karten hüten und bewahren: Festgabe für Lothar grown together over a period of about seven hundred Zögner (Gotha: Perthes, 1995); Lexikon for Ingrid Kretschmer, Jo- years.2 It included an area that is covered today by Ger- hannes Dörflinger, and Franz Wawrik, eds., Lexikon zur Geschichte der many, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Kartographie, 2 vols. (Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1986); Mercator for Wolfgang Scharfe, ed., Gerhard Mercator und seine Zeit (Duisburg: the Netherlands, as well as parts of France, Poland, Italy, W. Braun, 1996); and Wandlungen for Manfred Büttner, ed., Wand- and Czechia. The medieval expressions in Latin were Ale- lungen im geographischen Denken von Aristoteles bis Kant (Paderborn: mania, Germania, and Teutonia, while the German Schöningh, 1979). generic term Teutschlandt occurs only in the last decades 1. A first version of this contribution was finished in 1990. The pres- of the fifteenth century. All earlier sources in vernacular ent, entirely reworked text is based on a research project executed by the author from 1992 to 1997 at the University of Trier; see Peter H. language use the plural form “German lands” (teutsche Meurer, Corpus der älteren Germania-Karten: Ein annotierter Katalog lant). This reflects the nonpolitical way the German na- der gedruckten Gesamtkarten des deutschen Raumes von den Anfängen tion saw itself as a community linked by common lan- bis um 1650, text and portfolio (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2001). guage and culture. By 1450, sources were using phrases 2. General literature on the subject is endless. An easy, legible intro- such as regnum nostrum et natio germanica, underlining duction in English is provided by Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Em- pire, 1495–1806 (Houndsmills, Eng.: Macmillan, 1999). A useful recent a mental distinction between kingdom and nation. monograph in German on a major part of the period is Horst Rabe, Deutsche Geschichte, 1500 –1600: Das Jahrhundert der Glaubensspal- state structure tung (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1991). The history of the singular territories is found summarized in Georg Wilhelm Sante and A. G. Ploetz-Verlag, The political state structure, as it existed at the end of eds., Geschichte der deutschen Länder: “Territorien-Ploetz,” vol. 1, Die Territorien bis zum Ende des alten Reiches (Würzburg: A. G. Ploetz, the fifteenth century in Germany, is difficult to define 1964), and Gerhard Köbler, Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder: (fig. 42.1). The constitutional foundation was the king- Die deutschen Territorien vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (Munich: dom of Germany (Regnum Teutonicum). German king- C. H. Beck, 1988). For a popular science atlas, see Manfred Scheuch, ship was a de jure nonhereditary dignity; every candidate Historischer Atlas Deutschland: Vom Frankenreich bis zur Wiederver- had to be elected by a collegium of seven electors (Kur- einigung (Vienna: C. Brandstätter, 1997). 3 3. From the Middle Ages forward, the members of the collegium were fürsten). This realm was a hierarchically structured fed- the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier; the king of Bohemia; the eration of fiefs subject to the king. The individual ranks palatine of the Rhine; the marggrave of Brandenburg; and the duke of of these imperial estates (Reichsstände) and the form and Saxony. 1172 Copenhagen a e Königsberg S i c B a l t Frombork S e a h Danzig r t o Lübeck Rostock N Emden Elbe c Bremen b l i Oldenburg Vistula p u e W R e s h e c r Berlin t Amsterdam u Helmstedt Delft D Utrecht Deventer Wolfenbüttel Gouda Emmerich Wittenberg Duisburg Dortmund Göttingen Kassel Leipzig Oder Bruges Antwerp Calais Erfurt Brussels Cologne Dresden Louvain R h Aachen in Kingdom of Spanish e Cracow Netherlands Koblenz Frankfurt Prague el Trier os Mainz M Bohemia Worms Chantilly Zweibrücken Heidelberg Nuremberg Reichenbach Rothenburg ob der Tauber Eichstätt Regensburg Ingolstadt Seine Strasbourg Landshut Passau Tübingen Ulm Augsburg D Klosterneuburg anube Loire Vienna St. Dié Munich Salzburg Freiburg im Breisgau h c e L Basel n Zurich I n ne Besançon Ô Innsbruck Sa Graz Fribourg Luzern Bern Swiss Confederation D Bressanone ra Trento va Lyon Triest Padua Milan Sava Venice Po Turin Rhône Genoa Bologna A Florence d Arno r a T i ib e e a r S t i n c a S e e a n a e r r M e d i t Rome Empire's borders ca. 1500 Empire ca. 1500 Empire's borders in 1648 Areas ceded from the Empire 1500–1648 Other borders fig. 42.1. REFERENCE MAP OF THE POLITICAL STRUC- Karten: Ein annotierter Katalog der gedruckten Gesamtkarten TURE OF THE GERMAN LANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH des deutschen Raumes von den Anfängen bis um 1650, text AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. and portfolio (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2001), 4 Based on Peter H. Meurer, Corpus der älteren Germania- (fig. 0-1). 1174 State Contexts of Renaissance Mapping was comprised of just Savoy, Piedmont, Milan, Tuscany, Spain and attained the Burgundian possessions of the and some city-states as far as Siena in the south, and the house of Habsburg, including the Netherlands. A strong kingdom of Burgundy, which in the fifteenth century con- Catholic, Philip exercised a much more rigid opposition sisted only of the Franche-Comté. The three realms to upheaval and heresy in his lands than the Counter- formed the real Holy Roman Empire (in German: Heiliges Reformation did in the rest of the empire. A consequence Römisches Reich or Römisch-Deutsches Reich; in Latin, was the Eighty Years War of the Netherlands against the Sacrum Imperium Romanum). The partially spiritual dig- Spanish crown from 1568, stemming from religious, po- nity of emperorship included in principle the sovereignty litical, and economic motives.6 In 1579, the seven north- over all of Western Christianity. This position changed in ern provinces proclaimed the Union of Utrecht, asserting the late Middle Ages. The Roman-German king had the the Dutch republic’s independence from Spain. right (but no claim) to be crowned emperor by the pope. The extended title “Holy Roman Empire of the German a historiographical sketch Nation” was introduced as an instrument of political prop- aganda by the house of Habsburg, which came to the The history of cartography in the German-speaking area German throne in 1452. was first routinely studied in the eighteenth century Maximilian I, Romano-German king since 1486 and within the field of map documentation.7 Precursory the first self-appointed “Elected Roman Emperor” (from works by Caspar Gottschling in 1711 and Johann Gott- 1508) without coronation by the pope, was the first dom- fried Gregorii in 1713 were followed in 1724 by the inant figure.4 He was successful in creating a concrete epochal annotated bibliography of old and contemporary European empire under Habsburg rule by acquiring Bur- maps by the Swabian theologian and geographer Eber- gundy and Spain through dynastic marriages. Maximil- hard David Hauber.8 Hauber’s work, organized by sub- ian’s reform of the empire, including the introduction of jects and regions, is still a rich source of information. This imperial taxes and the founding of an imperial court of jus- tradition was continued in specialized form in Switzer- tice (Reichskammergericht), was an important step to- land at the end of the century by von Haller.9 ward constitutional and political consolidation. A new territorial structure resulted in the subdivision of the Ger- Maximilian I.: Das Reich, Österreich Reichskreise 4. See Hermann Wiesflecker, man heartland into ten imperial districts ( ) und Europa an der Wende zur Neuzeit, 5 vols. (Munich: Oldenbourg, that brought a certain territorial identity of the empire 1971–86), and Gerhard Benecke, Maximilian I (1459–1519): An Ana- with the German nation for the first time. Outside the lytical Biography (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982). structure remained the Swiss cantons, which had declared 5. The older literature is summarized in some publications commem- their independence from the German crown in 1499. orating the quincentenary of Charles’s birth: Alfred Kohler, Karl V., 1500 –1558: Eine Biographie (Munich: C.