Matthäus Seutter (20 September 1678

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the '' ...

– March 1757 in Augsburg) was a German map

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

of the 18th century.

Biography

Seutter, The Attack of Love, 1730, Cornell CUL PJM 1020 01

Seutter started his career as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

. Apparently uninspired by the beer business, Seutter left his apprenticeship and moved to

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

where he apprenticed as an

engrave Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

r under the tutelage of the prominent J. B. Homann. Sometime in the early 18th century Seutter left Homann to establish his own independent cartographic publishing firm in

. Though he struggled in the early years of his independence, Seutter’s engraving skill and commitment to diversified map production eventually gained him a substantial following. Most of Seutter’s maps were heavily based upon, if not copies of, earlier work done by the Homann and Delisle firms. By 1732 Seutter was honored by the

German Emperor The German Emperor (german: Deutscher Kaiser, ) was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the off ...

Charles VI with the title of “Imperial Geographer”. Seutter continued to publish until his death, at the height of his career, in 1757. The Seutter firm continued under Seutter’s son Albrecht Carl until his death in 1762. Following Albrecht’s death, the firm was divided between the established Probst firm and the emerging firm of Tobias Conrad Lotter. Lotter, Matthäus Seutter’s son in law, was a master engraver and worked on behalf of the Seutter firm. Lotter would eventually become one of the most prominent cartographers of his day.

References

Sources

*Ritter, M. Seutter, Probst and Lotter: An Eighteenth-Century Map Publishing House in Germany., "Imago Mundi", Vol. 53, (2001), pp. 130–135.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Seutter, Matthaus 1647 births 1756 deaths German cartographers Map publishing companies People from Augsburg