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This 1710 map of the Holy Roman Empire by John Senex, based upon information from both the Royal Society in London and the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris.
Issued during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), this map captures the fragmented yet interdependent nature of the Holy Roman Empire at a time of escalating geopolitical tension. The map illustrates the hundreds of semi-autonomous duchies, bishoprics, principalities, and free cities which made up the Holy Roman Empire at the beginning of the 18th Century.
The map includes Germany, the Low Countries, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and parts of northern Italy and France. Cities such as Vienna, Prague A decorative cartouche in the lower left, shows allegorical figures including Mercury and the personification of Germany.
John Senex (1678-1740) was one of the foremost mapmakers in England in the early eighteenth century. He was also a surveyor, globemaker, and geographer. As a young man, he was apprenticed to Robert Clavell, a bookseller. He worked with several mapmakers over the course of his career, including Jeremiah Seller and Charles Price. In 1728, Senex was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a rarity for mapmakers. The Fellowship reflects his career-long association as engraver to the Society and publisher of maps by Edmund Halley, among other luminaries. He is best known for his English Atlas (1714), which remained in print until the 1760s. After his death in 1740 his widow, Mary, carried on the business until 1755. Thereafter, his stock was acquired by William Herbert and Robert Sayer (maps) and James Ferguson (globes).
