• Title : Carte du District de Tranquebar: Caart des Regtsgebieds van Trankenbar
• Ref #:  61070
• Size: 17in x 15in (430mm x 380mm)
• Date : 1755
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large original copper-plate engraved antique map a plan of the city, fort & environs of Tharangambadi, formerly Tranquebar, in Tamil Nadu, India - with separate page Index of Buildings and important landmarks - by Jakob van Schley in 1755, was published in the Dutch edition of Antoine François Prevosts 15 volumes of Histoire Generale des Voyages written by Prevost & other authors between 1746-1790.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 17in x 15in (430mm x 380mm)
Plate size: - 13in x 13in (305mm x 305mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - None

Background: 
Tharangambadi, formerly Tranquebar, is a town in the Nagapattinam district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies 15 kilometres north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary of the Kaveri River. It was a Danish colony from 1620 to 1845, and in Danish it is still known as Trankebar.
The place dates back to 14th century. Masilamani nathar (Shiva) temple was built in 1306, in a land given by Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I. As of now, this temple is the oldest monument. Until 1620, when the Danes came, the place was under Thanjavur Nayak kingdom. Danish admiral Ove Gjedde felt the place would be a potential trading centre, made a deal with Raghunatha Nayak and built a fort, which is known as Fort Dansborg. Nevertheless, a jesuit Catholic church was already in place before that, catering for the Indo-Portuguese community. The Catholic church was probably demolished to build the fort. This fort was the residence and headquarters of the governor and other officials for about 150 years.
Among the first Protestant missionaries to set foot in India were two Lutherans from Germany, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pluetschau, who began work in 1705 in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. Ziegenbalg translated the Old and New Testaments into Tamil, imported a printing press, and printed the New Testament in Tamil in 1714.
The local people were forced to learn the broken Portuguese that was the lingua franca between Indians and Europeans at the time, and later on translated the Bible into the local Tamil language. They also established a printing press, which within a hundred years of its establishment in 1712 had printed 300 books in Tamil. At first they only made little progress in their religious efforts, but gradually the mission spread to Madras, Cuddalore and Tanjore. Today Bishop of Tranquebar is the official title of a bishop in theTamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) in South India which was founded in 1919 as a result of the German Lutheran Leipzig Mission and Church of Sweden Mission. The seat of the Bishop, the Cathedral and its Church House (\\\"Tranquebar House\\\") is in Tiruchirappalli.
The Zion church was consecrated in 1701, which is the oldest Protestant church in India. In 1718, The New Jerusalem Church was constructed. Moravian Brethren missionaries from Herrnhut, Saxony established the Brethren\\\'s Garden at Porayar near Tranquebar and operated it as a missionary centre for a number of years. An Italian Catholic FatherConstanzo Beschi, who worked in the colony from 1711 to 1740, found himself in conflict with the Lutheran pioneers at Tranquebar, against whom he wrote several polemical works.
Tranquebar was occupied by the British in February 1808 during the Napoleonic Wars but was restored to Denmark following the Treaty of Kiel in 1814 and The Norwegian Declaration of Independence. Along with the Danish settlement of Serampore in Bengal, it was sold to the British in 1845. Tranquebar was then still a busy port, but it later lost its importance after a railway was opened to Nagapattinam.