1638 Matthias Merian Views of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Negroponte (Chalcis)

This is a 1638 Matthias Merian engraving of two city views: Ragusa (Dubrovnik, Croatia) and Negroponte (Chalcis, Greece). Each city is viewed as if from a high point, with its harbor in the foreground. Then, as now, grand medieval walls surround each, but within both church steeples and minarets are apparent, underscoring how each city frequently changed hands in the ongoing wars between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic.

Ragusa

Medieval Ragusa, now Dubrovnik, was a Venetian territory and a vital link in the spice trade. When the Portuguese established a sea route around Africa to the spice islands, the overland spice trade dried up, but Ragusa was able to maintain influence by carefully balancing the interests of Venice with those of the Ottoman Empire. Their merchant fleet was able to travel freely in the territories of both powers. In 1667, Ragusa suffered a catastrophic earthquake, taking as many as 5,000 lives and flattening most of the structures visible here. Dubrovnik's famous city walls survived the earthquake and thus are more recognizable - both the old medieval walls facing the water and the more modern fortifications facing land.

Negroponte

The ancient name, literally meaning 'Black Bridge,' refers to the city of Chalcia on the Greek island of Euboea - where it spanned the narrowest gap of the Euripus Strait, separating the island from the mainland. Formerly a Venetian state, since 1470 it had been an Ottoman territory. Its strategic position was such that the Ottomans made the city the 'Seat of the Admiral of the Archipelago.'

Publication History and Census

This map was executed in 1638 for inclusion in Matthias Merian's Neuwe Archontologia Cosmica, a German translation of Pierre d'Avity's 1616 Les Estats, Empires, et Principautez du Monde. We identify ten examples of later editions of Merian's Neuwe Archontologia Cosmica in institutional collections, and five examples of this separate map are cataloged in OCLC.