This superb separately published broadside town plan of La Rochelle in France was published by Jean Le Clerc V in Paris. Le Clerc flourished from 1618 and died in 1637. He was the son of the more famous Jean Le Clerc IV, publisher of ‘Le Theatre Francois’ and ‘Le Theatre Geographique’. He specialised in religious engravings and this plan relates to the First Huguenot rebellion 1620-22. From 1617 Louis XIII began to reassert the rights of Catholics in Huguenot Bearn and three years later annexed it. In October 1620 the city of Pau was occupied which was forced to endure a Government in which only Catholics could sit. Christmas Day in 1620 a meeting was held in La Rochelle of the Huguenot community in which the decision was taken to forcefully resist the French authorities. It intended to set up a state within a state. A peace was settled in 1622 but two years later Cardinal Richelieu came to power marking the beginning of very hard times for the community.

The superb item depicts the entire city along with detailed birds-eye profiles of all the buildings. There is a forty-two point key on the right identifying the key buildings and fortifications in and around the town. The remaining text describes the town, its situation, the region, the community, the fortifications, and recent conflicts. The central plan to the broadside is engraved by Jan Ziarnko (1575-1626) a native of Poland. Benezit: Tooley’s Dictionary.