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Plan de la Fortification Fait par les Anglois sur le Fort St. Philippo, Port de Mahon, 1712
In stock
This scarce and finely detailed map by Peter Schenk depicts Fort St. Philip or St. Philip’s Castle at Port Mahón, Minorca—a key military stronghold in the western Mediterranean. The star-shaped fort, surrounded by a patchwork of fields, is highlighted with soft color tones and shaded hills. A decorative trompe-l’oeil cartouche in the upper left, styled like a pinned scroll, credits the English with constructing the fort and includes a scale bar. Originally designed in the mid-1500s by Italian engineer Giovanni Battista Calvi, Fort St. Philip exemplifies the star fort design developed in response to gunpowder warfare. England occupied and reinforced the fort between 1663 and 1679 and again after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which transferred control of Minorca to Britain. Port Mahón then became a major Royal Navy base, prompting extensive military development. The fort was central to several major conflicts, including its siege by the French in 1756 during the Seven Years’ War and by the Spanish in 1782. Following the latter, King Charles III ordered the fort’s destruction. Today, only underground remnants survive, making this map a rare visual record of the lost structure. This map is extremely rare, and one of very few are housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.
Condition: Good - Archival repair to back centerfold
Map Maker: Petrus Schenk
Coloring: Black & White
Year: 1712
In stock
