Historic Map : Vaugondy Map of Southern Brabant (Vicinity of Brussels), Belgium and Luxembourg, 1752, Vintage Wall Art

This is an attractive 1752 map of the southern part of the Duchy of Brabant by Robert de Vaugondy. The map depicts part of modern day Belgium and Luin xembourg, which was at the time this map was made, part of the Duchy of Brabant. It covers the vicinity of Brussels and extends from Malines south to Chimay and from Ninove east as far as Sittard in the Netherlands. The entire region is depicted in extraordinary detailed, offering both topographical and political information, with forests and mountains beautifully rendered in profile.

The Duchy of Brabant, established in the late 12th century by the Holy Roman Empire was an important region of the Low Counties and was part of the Habsburg Netherlands, until the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War. Brabant would be divided with the its northern portion becoming part of the United Provinces and the southern portion remaining part of Spanish Netherlands, and later the Austrian Netherlands. It would eventually be dissolved in 1795, when Napoleonic forces invaded and set up a new French client state, the Batavian Republic.

A beautifully engraved title cartouche adorns the lower right quadrant. Issued in the 1757 issue of the Atlas Universal. The Atlas Universal was one of the first atlases based upon actual surveys. Therefore, this map is highly accurate (for the period) and has most contemporary town names correct, though historic names are, in many cases, incorrect or omitted.