Matthaeus Seutter

Matthäus Seutter, also Seuter (1678-1757), engraver and cartographer, was born in Augsburg in 1678, the son of the goldsmith Matthias S. and the beer brewing daughter Helene Geiselmeir. His parents originally named him a beer brewer, but he got it through that he was allowed to learn how to make a map with JB Homann in Nuremberg. Already in 1707, in which year he married for the first time (in 1708 and 1717 he married for the second and third time), we find him an independent engraver at Augsburg.

Within a short time, he succeeded his predecessors there and competitors in the map engraving, Joh. Stridbeck and Jer. Wolf, especially in terms of richness and variety of the cartographic publisher to overtake and map trading, which was favored by the warlike times to operate on a large scale. His commercial success is attested by the purchase completed in 1723 of the house D 261 (St. Annagasse), his scientific title of "imperial geographer", which was awarded to him by the Emperor in 1730 for the dedication of his "great atlas".

He died in 1757. - Up to this year, from his office, about 400 leaves have been produced, most of them by himself, and by the rest of his son-in-law (since 1740). Tobias Konrad Lotter, the engraver Andreas Silbereisen and his son Albrecht Karl S. are stung. About 250 of them are maps, against 100 plans and views of cities, the rest chronological tables, pedigrees, tables explaining the sea and war, finally Jak. Brucker's "History of Philosophy" in 6 tables and various "Curiosa".

All the pages of the publishing house, just as they were in the various years, formed Seutter's "great atlas" (with no year), occasionally using homannas and other maps, while the main maps were made into smaller atlases under special titles; known are: "Atlas geographicus", 1725, with 46 maps; "Atlas compendiosus", o. J., with 20 cards; "Atlas compendiosus scholasticus", o. J., with 26 maps; "Atlas novus indicibus instructus", Vienna and Augsburg, around 1730 with 25, around 1735 with 50 maps divided into letter squares and belonging to the kaiserl. Hofkriegsagent Matth. Roth made local registers; "Atlas minor" (4 °), above, with 50 cards. Each of these atlases is preceded by a "painted" title page with the eastern hemisphere and allegorical figures, which designates it as "Atlas novus sive tabulae geographicae totius orbis faciem exhibentes ...", o For the most part, a brief, mathematical-physical "introduction to the as graceful as useful studio of geography" (Latin or German) is attached.

The great majority of the leaves are copies or insignificant variations of Dutch and French, but also Homännischer originals; In the manner and content of the Homannean maps, they were put on the market as soon as possible after the appearance of the expensive, often hard-to-procure originals without a statement of author and year of publication, and offered to the public at a fair price. S. also has the merit of allowing the geographically untrained, "newspaper-reading" public by adding the location register an easy and quick orientation on the map.

His original maps are usually limited to smaller German areas; Highlights include Michal's "Schwaben" in 9 sheets (around 1720) and "Rheinstrom" in 3 sheets, Harenberg's "Palestine" (1738), Walser's cards of several Swiss cantons (after 1740), Zürner's "Saxon special cards" (after 1750), S. has not maintained permanent scientific staff; Hasius and Tob. Mayer, who lived with Andreas Silbereisen in 1741-46, is only occasionally employed by the geographer Rizzi-Zannoni of Padua, who spent some time, probably in the middle of the fifties, in the Seutterian house. S. did not strive to achieve critical independence in cartography, as they attempted to achieve the homannan heirs since 1732.

His publishing house was divided after his death, and partly passed to his son Albrecht Karl, who died soon, partly to Michael Probst, partly to Tob. Konr. Lotter (1717-77). The latter, whose prick was much praised, and even more his son and heir Matthew Albrecht Lotter (born 1741), by making use of English original maps and more frequent edition of his own works, was visibly striving to bring the Seutterische Officin back to a contemporary standpoint; but also they have not been particularly successful.

aul v. Stetten dj, art, trade and craft history of the imperial city of Augsburg. Augsburg 1779, p. 54 ff. - The remaining biogr. Data from various acts and protocols of the augsb. city ??archive. - ED Hauber, History of the map of Swabia, Ulm 1724, p. 33 et seq. - A list of maps u. s. w. from Matth. Seutter s. in the new book hall of the beautiful Wissensch. VI. Bd. (1748), p. 559 ff.

References:

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Band 34 (1892), S. 70–72.

Books & Publications

Book Title	Date
Atlas Novus sive Tabulae Geographicae	1730