16. Map of southern Denmark and the neighbouring countries

16. Title: Denmark, Holstein, Hamburgh, Lübek & Eutin, with part of Sweden, Germany & Prussia. Whole map enclosed in Grecian style frame with numbers embedded for latitude and longitude (53-57 and 9-13). Imprint below map, followed by title and below this is the signature (see notes below).
Date: 1805.
Size: 390 x 250 mm. 
Imprint(s): London, published May 15, 1805 for John Cooke, No. 11 Pratt Place, Camden Town, and sold by all booksellers.
Signature(s): By John Cooke Engraver to the Admiralty
Location(s): BL and RGS.[1]

 

Comments: It is not at first apparent why this map should have been engraved: the area was certainly significant with Holstein (A), Hamburg (B), Lübeck (C) and Eutin (D) all on Denmark´s doorstep and Denmark possessing a portion of Prussia (E). If the name Schleswig had also appeared in the title, then there would, perhaps, have been an explanation. For centuries Holstein and the smaller Schleswig (only just visible as SLESVIG south of Jutland, underlined in the detail below) had had an uneasy partnership: the former, part of the Holy German Empire, and the latter, part of the fiefdom of the kings of Denmark. 

 

At the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo in 1773, Tsar Paul 1st encouraged the Danish king to give up Oldenburg and Delmenhorst to the Bishop of Lübeck in return for the Duchies of Schleswig with Holstein. A year after the map was published the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist.

This is one of only two maps produced by Cooke while still at the Board of Admiralty but published by him.



[1] The BL map (Maps cc.5.a.360) is torn at the bottom. The RGS copy (Denmark V.F.S.7), illustrated, signature has been trimmed at bottom of map.


Link to Map 17.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog