Merian Map of Paris; Antique Map; Historic Cartography, 1615

The plan of Merian in a colorized version The Merian map of Paris (French: plan de Merian) was created in 1615 and presents a "bird's eye view" looking east with a scale of about 1 to 7, 000. It originally consisted of two engraved plates (50 x 37 cm each) with the left and right halves of the map and was printed with 2 columns of portraits (each 50 x 13 cm) on the left and right sides of the respective map halves. The entire assembly was 50 x 101.5 cm.(1) At the top, a banner with the title: "LE PLAN DE LA VILLE, CITE, VNIVERSITE ET FAVX-BOVRGS DE PARIS AVEC LA DESCRIPTION DE SON ANTIQVITE ET SINGVLIARITES" ("Map of the town, city, university and suburbs with the description of its antiquity and particularities"). In the upper left corner of the map, between the Château de Vincennes and the Marets du Temple, are the coat of arms of France and Navarre, encircled by the necklace of the order of the Holy Spirit, and to just its right, the coat of arms of Paris (a ship on a river) surrounded by a crown of laurel leaves. In the lower left of the map, beneath the farm of the Grange Batelliere, one can read these four lines of verse: Cette ville est un autre monde Dedans, un monde florissant, En peuples et en biens puissants Qui de toutes choses abonde. (This city is another world Therein a flowerful world, Of people very powerful To whom all things abound). On the right of the poem is inscribed the name of the author of the map: Matheus Merian Basiliensis fecit ("fecit" = "did" in Latin).