A Map of The German Empire Divided into its Circles to which is added The Kingdom of Prussia. The whole laid down from the most accurate Surveys. And chiefly from the Map of Marshal de Schmeltau Lately Published at Berlin By the Royal Acad of Sciences by

Rare wall chart on two sheets of the German Empire empire as divided into the Imperial Circles with a sensational large and elaborate title cartouche at top left comprising the Imperial Eagle and two uniformed men and arms.

* Note there other much smaller maps with the same title.

Imperial Circles (c. 1512). At the start of the early modern era, efforts were made to strengthen the government of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Under Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519), large areas of the Empire were organized into ten Imperial Circles [Reichskreise], each of which was headed by two princes, normally the highest-ranking secular and ecclesiastical members of the Circle. The tasks of the Imperial Circles included safeguarding the “Perpetual Public Peace” proclaimed in 1495, enforcing verdicts passed by the Imperial Chamber Court [Reichskammergericht] established in 1495, supervising minting, collecting Imperial taxes, and raising troops for the Empire. The Imperial Circles did not encroach upon the territorial integrity of the existing duchies and counties.

The Circles strengthened the princes’ predominant role in the Imperial Diet [Reichstag], an enduring characteristic of the Imperial constitution, which did not develop further in the direction of a centralized or federal nation-state.