• Title : Partie Septentrionale du Cercle de Haute Saxe qui contient L e Duche de Pomeranie et Le Marqui sat de Brandebourg....A Venise...P Santini...1778
• Date : 1778
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
• Ref:  50204
• Size: 30in x 21in (760mm x 535mm)

Description:
This large magnificent original copper-plate engraved antique map of The Upper Saxon Circle of NE Germany, Prussia, dominated by the electorate of Brandenburg, was engraved in 1778 - the date is engraved in the title cartouche - after Robert De Vaugondy and was published by Francois Santini (active 1776-84) in his 2 volume edition of Atlas Universal 1776-84. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Blue, pink, red, green, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 30in x 21in (760mm x 535mm)
Plate size: - 22in x 19 1/2in (560mm x 495mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
The Upper Saxon Circle was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, created in 1512.
The circle consists of approx. 23 states was dominated by the electorate of Saxony (the circles director) and the electorate of Brandenburg. It further comprised the Saxon Ernestine duchies and Pomerania. The Lusatias that fell to Saxony by the 1635 Peace of Prague were never encircled.

During the Early Modern period the Holy Roman Empire was divided into Imperial Circles administrative groupings whose primary purposes were the organization of common defensive structure and the collection of imperial taxes. They were also used as a means of organization within the Imperial Diet and the Imperial Chamber Court. Each circle had a Circle Diet, although not every member of the Circle Diet would hold membership of the Imperial Diet as well.
Six Imperial Circles were introduced at the Diet of Augsburg in 1500. In 1512, three more circles were added, and the large Saxon Circle was split into two, so that from 1512 until the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in the Napoleonic era, there were ten Imperial Circles. The Crown of Bohemia, the Swiss Confederacy and Italy remained unencircled, as did various minor territories which held imperial immediacy.