The Merian map of Paris () was created in 1615 by
Matthäus Merian the Elder. It presents a
bird's eye view looking
east
East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...
with a scale of about 1 to 7,000. The map originally consisted of two engraved plates (50 x 37 cm each) with the left and right halves of the map and was printed with 2 columns of portraits (each 50 x 13 cm) on the left and right sides of the respective map halves. The entire assembly was 50 x 101.5 cm.
[Boutier 2007, pp. 120–122.]
At the top is a banner with the title: ("Map of the
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
,
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
,
university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
and
suburbs with the description of its antiquity and particularities"). In the upper left corner of the map, between the
Château de Vincennes and the
Marets du Temple, are the
coat of arms of France
The coat of arms of France is an unofficial emblem of the France, French Republic. It depicts a lictor's fasces upon branches of laurel and oak, as well as a ribbon bearing the national motto of . The full Achievement (heraldry), achievement inc ...
and
Navarre, encircled by the necklaces of the
Orders of the Holy Spirit and
of Saint Michael to just its right, the
coat of arms of Paris surrounded by a
crown of laurel leaves. The portraits on the left, top to bottom are: the king, courtiers, nobles and merchants, peasants and commoners; on the right: the queen, ladies of the court, noble and bourgeois women, common women.
[ In the lower left of the map, beneath the farm of the Grange Batellière, there are four lines of verse:
On the right of the poem is inscribed the name of the author of the map: ("did" in ]Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
). At the bottom of the map, there is an ornament with a large compass rose placed in the middle of the River Seine.
The Merian map was frequently used as the basis of subsequent maps, including those of Visscher (1618), Melchior Tavernier (–1635), Jacob van der Heyden (1630), Christophe Tassin (1634), Dubarle (), (), and Martin Zeiler (1655). In turn, the map of Tassin served as the source of numerous later maps.[
]
References
*Boutier, Jean (2007). ''Les Plans de Paris'', second edition, pp. 120–122. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France. .
Further reading
*
External links
{{Commons category-inline, Merian plan of Paris
Maps of Paris
History of Paris
Maps of the history of France
Urban planning in France
1615 works
17th-century maps and globes