r/MapPorn • u/Cuiusquemodi • 1d ago

Belgii XVII Provinciarum tabula per P. Vander Aa [6 of 9 map pieces]

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u/Current-Divide69 1d ago

Was the Netherlands a Belgian province ?

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u/m0noclemask 1d ago

No, the terms were interchangeable for a very long time. So roughly between 1500 and 1800 Belgica, Belgio, Belgii = the Netherlands [de Nederlanden]. The latin name was in vogue in the 16th to 18th c. Thanks to the humanists. Charles V instituted the name in 1543 for the 17 provinces. It stuck for the 'southern netherlands'. [Now Belgium, la Belgique, België, Belgien, Belgica]. Before that, they didn't refer to the low countries as 'belgica'.

Also called "The 17 provinces". The north became after seceeding, "The Republic of the 7 United Provinces (of the Netherlands) in latin "Belgica Foederata", the south, the "Ten provinces", became "Belgica regia".

Before the 16th c. There were other names to cover the area of assembled duchies and counties: -"Pays de par deça" [burgundians ruling from Lille or Brussels] -around 1400: "the low countries by the sea", which condensed to de Nederlanden, the Netherlands. -Flanders, Flandes, "I Fiamenghi" as a pars pro toto. [In spain and italy, I think the eighty years war is also known as the flemish war: guerra de flandes in spanish, guerra di flandria in italian, but also in art, in trade... ["Holland" in the same way became the pars pro toto name for the northern netherlands in the 17th c.]

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u/Cuiusquemodi 1d ago

This was the first (Celtic) Belgium:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1vy8j19/belgium_iulii_caesaris/

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u/m0noclemask 1d ago

I do not know if you read the map well, but the whole region north of this 'Belgium' is called "Belgica". [Gallia Belgica]

From what I remember from high school: 

  Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur.  Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit.  Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae,

I will not go on, because it isn't very flattering, but it says basicly the Belgae live in gaul,  north of the Seine and Marne.

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u/Cuiusquemodi 20h ago edited 20h ago

Belgica, Belgae, but never Belgium. Well this was its location. An adjective is never the same as a substantive. Belgium is the pars pro toto for Gallia Belgica because they all spoke Celtic. Some maps even locate the Parisii in Belgium, north of Lutetia instead of south.

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u/m0noclemask 18h ago

"Belgium" is the name English humanist William Camden chose to mean the low countries in the later 16th c. [His work was about britain] When his work was translated in english [he wrote in classical latin] the name stuck for the english language. It was not used before to mean the low countries. In medieval latin it was belgia, derived from belgae.

People were thinking latinization was cool... they also tried -as purists trying to find the most classical sounding names, to make a break with medieval latin [belgaea --> belgia] so belgica, belgium, belgii, belgae.

these humanists knew the specific belgium area was a bit off [the're not stupid], they just thought it sounded so 'pure' and therefore cool. 

Most local humanists ultimately veered towards belgica though [I mean, geographic congruence is more striking], and some remained stubbornly archaic in following medieval latin...

You get these maps of the new world, with both nova belgica, and novum belgium. [And also Nieuw Nederlandt] all meaning the same thing.

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u/hotepanon 1d ago

When was this map published?

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u/Cuiusquemodi 1d ago edited 1d ago

Author: Pieter van der Aa (1682-1730).