Gerard MERCATOR (1512-1594), Map of Germania and Poland, 1595

copperplate, watercolor, handmade paper, 43 x 53 cm; signed at center: "Per Gerardum Mercatorem". Small old spots,good condition.

The map covers the territory from the imperial Netherlands to the territory of present-day Poland, as the empire did not claim the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. On the back there is a text in Latin, where the kingdoms included in the empire are listed, i.e. Poland, Bohemia and Hungary. The rest of the states specified as principalities. About Poland it is written that, although it did not pay tribute to the Reich, but the lands up to the Vistula River are part of the empire. Therefore, this map goes as far as Ostroleka, Minsk Maz., Sandomierz, Rymanow, among others. In total, there are about 150 towns from the Polish lands. When this map was laid out, Emperor Rudolf II, whose grandmother was Anna Jagiellonka, reigned. His father - Emperor Maximilian, as a descendant of the Jagiellons after his mother, was proclaimed king of Poland but eventually became St.Batory. Both of his grandfather's sisters were wives of King Sigismund Augustus. These family connections show how the Commonwealth was linked to Western Europe.Beautiful coloring, typical of Renaissance maps.