Methods and Concepts of the Construction of Territories on Maps of the 16th century in the West of the Holy Roman Empire.

At the beginning of the early modern period, the west of the Holy Roman Empire was a territorially fragmented landscape: Besides a few larger principalities, a multitude of smaller and smallest largely independent territories existed. But in the regional context, the relationships proved to be even more complex; they were characterised by overlapping feudal rights and high court districts, by joint dominions of two, three or more seigneurs, by disputed territories and many other forms of dependencies. A cartographic recording of these complex and multidimensional spatial structures was not possible by the means of the time.
The rise of an increasingly scientific cartography from the mid-15th century onwards allowed the princes of larger territories to use cartographic representations as instruments of power: on the one hand, as a basis for the political and administrative development of their territories, on the other hand, as a medium for the dissemination of territorial claims and for the representation of dominion.
The analysis of selected maps shows the various strategies used to construct the fragmentary possessions as closed territories. For this purpose, borders in the form of lines were defined on maps from the middle of the 16th century onwards, although linear frontiers between two territories mostly did not exist at that time.