Plan de la ville de Gilbraltar [sic]... Aftekening van Gibraltar
Engraved map by Pierre Husson. 17 x 36.5 cm.
Pierre Husson (1678-1733) was a publisher of books and prints at The Hague in the late 17th-early 18th century. He was especially known for his publications of plans of battlefields and fortifications during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713). This plan of Gibraltar was published in his Diverses Cartes de Geographie, où l’on peut voir la Theatre de la Guerre dans tout le Monde. Husson also published a number of books on the military arts and the theory of fortifications; typical of these are Johann Landsberg’s Nouvelle Maniere de Fortifier les Places, 1712, and Jean Grimarest’s Fonctions des Generaux, ou l’art de conduire une armée, 1710 This plan of Gibraltar, with its view of the fortress, is of particular interest because it was produced shortly after the combined British and Dutch forces seized the Rock on the 24th of July, 1704, during one of the actions of the War of the Spanish Succession. The movements of the fleets are indicated on the map. Although the British and the Dutch were allied in the battle, the British Admiral, Sir George Rooke, took possession of Gibraltar in the name of Queen Anne, whose government ratified the occupation. During the whole of the 18th century numerous attempts were made by the Spanish to regain possession, but they all failed. This, despite the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 (one of the series of treaties which ended the War of the Spanish Succession) by which Spain ceded Gibraltar to England. The Treaty of Utrecht, as a result of the War, was one of the most important treaties in British history, and contributed greatly to the expansion of the British empire. Bibliography: Koeman, Hus 1, (11).
From Husson’s Diverses Cartes de Geographie, où l’on peut voir la Theatre de la Guerre dans tout le Monde.
From the collection of the Tangier American Legation Museum (Morocco), M338.