Unusual and fascinating look at mapmaking in the 18th century

Mappa geographiae naturalis sive tabella synoptica / inventa et adornata à Matth. Seuttero. S. Caes. Maj. geogr. Aug.

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SKU: NL-00536 Category: Tag:
Cartographer(s): Matthäus Seutter
Date: 1730
Place: Augsburg
Dimensions: 56 x 49 cm (19 x 22 in)
Condition Rating: VG
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Description

This is a rare cartographic curiosity designed to illustrate the map drawing process. It consists of an imaginary map with a variety of cultural, geographical, and physical features designed to instruct would-be cartographers in the mapmaker’s art. By creating an imaginary place, a broad range of cartographic characteristics is displayed, including port cities, universities, churches, post roads, rivers, mountains, peninsulas, islands, and more. A variety of fonts, text styles, and symbols demonstrate how to produce well-designed labels. Text is given in both Latin and German.

A large, decorative cartouche – left black and white in the usual Seutter style – features an angel tracing on a globe, alongside natural elements. A lovely, colored compass rose, sailing ships, and sea monsters fill the seas. A pictorial legend labels the map features in German and Latin.

Because this map is not found in the standard Seutter works, it is quite scarce.

Cartographer(s):

Matthäus Seutter

Matthäus Seutter was born in Augsburg in 1678 and became one of the most prolific and influential German map publishers of the first half of the eighteenth century. Seutter apprenticed in Nuremberg under Johann Baptist Homann, a formative experience that shaped both his engraving technique and business approach. Around 1707, Seutter established an independent publishing house in Augsburg, which, over the following decades, grew into a major European cartographic firm. In 1731, Suetter was named Imperial Geographer (Geographus Caesareus) by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, further supporting his momentum.

Seutter’s firm was known for high-quality engraving, baroque cartouches, and for reproducing and adapting important foreign maps for the German market. After Seutter died in 1757, the business passed through family connections to his son-in-law, Tobias Conrad Lotter. Lotter continued to publish and reissue Seutter plates, sometimes altering imprints and ornaments to claim them more as his own. In general, Seutter’s practice exemplifies the commercial, collaborative, and often derivative nature of European cartography in the 18th century.

Condition Description

Some soiling and creasing; short bottom margin.

References

Hill, G. p.58, fig.69; MCC 1 (Tooley - Oddities) #67.