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Description

Rare map of France, likely engraved by Joost Amman in Frankfurt.

The map illustrates Charlemagne in the foreground, holding a globe aloft, with a map of France and neighboring regions as a background.

The map apparently appeared in a 1576 publication by Sigmund Feyerabend (Feyrabendt) entitled Cosmographia Das ist: Warhaffte eigentliche vnd kurtze Beschreibung, deß gantzen Erdbodems, the second part of a three part work. The text is in Gothic script by Francisco Alvarez and Johannes Schmidt was the printer.   While the map is unsigned, the attribution to Joost Amman is based upon there being other engravings in the work by Jost Amman.

 

Reference
Our thanks to Andrew Cookson for his help with the research for this map.
Joost Amman Biography

Jost Amman (1539-1591) was a Swiss-German artist, celebrated chiefly for his woodcuts, done mainly for book illustrations.

Jost Amman was the son of a noted scholar. While he was an artisan, he maintained connections with humanist scholars throughout his career.

Little is known of his early life.  By 1561, he was in working Nuremburg where he became one of northern Europe’s most prolific printmakers and book illustrators.  Amman likely trained with Virgil Solis (1514–1562), himself a prolific printmaker and primary illustrator for Frankfurt publisher Sigmund  Feyerabend (1528–1590). 

Although he maintained his own workshop, Amman worked primarily for Feyerabend, who  He provided Amman with a majority of his commissions as the two collaborated on at least fifty books.  In addition to illustrations, Amman designed other typographic elements in his books including ornamental
borders, initial letters, tailpieces, and printer’s marks, and cut most of his own blocks, at least early in his career, atlhough later he is known to have had had apprentices.  

During his career Amman completed hundreds of designs for dozens of book commissions, from bibles to classics, history to literature, costumes to emblems.  Amman's prints continued to be copied and re-used, becoming pattern books that influenced artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt van Rijn.