Region
Silva Vosagus
Vogesen · Vosges
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Silva Vosagus, the Vosges of eastern France, is lettered in red capitals and drawn as a row of trees standing on a jagged line, the map's sign for mountains. The trees are no local flora: cypresses, fruit trees and perhaps olives, but certainly no firs. Surprisingly, the forest sits near Mainz, while the Vosges appear a second time, unnamed, as the brown range where the Moselle rises. The placement fits an old image of the Rhine as an outpost of civilisation amid deep forests, and the same symbol returns for the Black Forest. The Vosges were also worshipped as a forest deity.