This title page belongs to one of the most popular atlases from the 17th century: the atlas Germania Inferior. It represents the Northern and Southern Netherlands as one continuous territory. The 17 provinces are represented by women with coats of arms of the provinces. The duchys Brabant, Gelderland, Limburg and Luxembourg are drawn first. Behind them are women symbolising the other counties and seignories. The first print of this famous atlas was published in 1617 - during the Twelve Year Truce - by the Amsterdam engraver and publisher Pieter van der Keere (1571-c. 1646). When the battle with the Spanish was renewed some years later, this first national atlas explained the reason of the war: the joining of the 17 provinces into one national State. This title page belonged to an edition of the atlas published by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaes_Visscher_II" class="extiw" title="en:Nicolaes Visscher II">Nicolaes Visscher II</a> (1649-1702) after 1681.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Nicolaes_Visscher_II" class="extiw" title="w:en:Nicolaes Visscher II"><span title="Dutch engraver, cartographer, publisher">Nicolaes Visscher II</span></a>
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after 1681 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1681-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1681-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
This digital media file - and/or the physical objects depicted on it - originates from the digital and/or physical collections of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.kb.nl/">Koninklijke Bibliotheek</a>, national library of the Netherlands.