Amsterdam  by Lodovico Guicciardini
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Amsterdam 1581

Lodovico Guicciardini

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  • About the artwork

    16th Century AMSTERDAM "Amstelredamum", copper engraving published in the "Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi" by Lodovico Guicciardini, published in 1581 by Christoffel Plantijn in Antwerp. Later hand-coloured. Measures 23,5 x 32,5 cm. The map is copied after a map that appeared from 1571 in the city books of Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, which in turn was a reduction of the first printed map of Amsterdam made by Cornelis Anthonisz. from 1544. The construction of the city is almost entirely limited to the area within the Singel, a piece of Amstel, the Kloveniersburgwal and the Gelderse Kade. Outside of this, we see development in the Lastange, the area east of the Gelderse Kade. The city's connection with shipping and trade, and implicitly its dependence on them, is made clear by the many ships that are depicted both inside and outside the palisades in the IJ. Guicciardini (1521 - 1589) was an Italian merchant and lived in Antwerp as a diplomat of the Medicis. Guicciardini was a man of broad knowledge and interest. In his Discrittione, he discusses various aspects of the Low Countries: the land and the landscape, the rivers and the sea, the forests, the inhabitants and their character and customs, the economy and trade, the state structure, the church activities, painting, music, etc. All this must have been very interesting for a traveller of the time. However, he was silent about the vicissitudes of war that plagued the Netherlands. The idyllic picture that Guicciardini gives of 'his' Netherlands is - as he explicitly writes - based on the political situation before 1560. Price Euro 425,- (incl. frame)

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