1721 Copper Engraving Portrait Anselm Casimir Wambold Archbishop Mainz EUM2

This is an original 1721 black and white copper engraving of "Anselmus Casimirus Ertzbischoff und Churfürst zu Maintz Ertz Cantzler des Heil Röm Reichs." This is a portrait of Anselm Casimir Wambold von Umstadt, Archbishop-Elector of Maintz from 1629 to 1647. He was the son of Eberhard Wambolt Umstadt and Anna von Reiffenberg. The Archbishops of Mainz were Arch Chancellors of the Holy Roman Empire and the most important of the seven Electors of the German Emperor. Traditionally, the Archbishops of Mainz were primas germaniae, a title of honor for the most important Catholic Bishop in Germany; they were the substitutes for the Pope north of the Alps. The portrait is surrounded by a wonderful decorative motif featuring the Oldest Electoral Hat, signifying the subject as a Prince-Elector, or simply Elector, a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire. These individuals had the function of electing the Roman King or, from the middle of the sixteenth century onwards, di