[Germania and Poland] Willem BLAEU (1571-1638), Nova totius Germaniae descriptio, ca. 1630.

Copperplate, watercolor, paper, 49.5 x 59.5 cm. Good condition.
The map covers lands from the then imperial Netherlands to almost all of present-day Poland, i.e. to Grodno, Sandomierz and Dębica in Lesser Poland, and from Danzig to Trieste in the south. On the back is a text in German describing Germania ruled by the Emperor from Vienna. Poland is identified as a kingdom that was part of the Reich (but which did not pay tribute), hence its presence on this map. Only Poland, along with Hungary and Bohemia, is specified as a kingdom and the rest of the countries are principalities. The map was issued during the reign of Emperor Ferdinand II Habsburg, whose grandmother on his father's side was Anna Jagiellonka. Both sisters of this emperor's father are wives of King Sigismund Augustus of Poland. And the daughter of this Emperor Ferdinand is Cecilia Renata, wife of King Wladyslaw IV of Poland. Thus, Poland is shown together with the empire (today it is a minimum of 9 states) because it had many family ties since the Middle Ages with Western Europe.