Frankfurt am Main approx. 1650.

Original copperplate engraving from approx. 1650 by Matthäus Merian. -- Sheet dimensions: approx. 11x17cm. -- well preserved. || Original copper engraving by Matthäus Merian from c. 1650. -- in good condition. || Matthäus Merian the Elder was a Swiss-German engraver and publisher. He was born in Basel in 1593. He published numerous maps, city views and chronicles. His main work is the Topographia Germaniae. He learned drawing, engraving and etching from the Zurich engraver Friedrich Meyer. From 1610 to 1615 he studied and worked in Strasbourg with Friedrich Brentel and in Paris with Jacques Callot, among others. His famous large city map of Basel was created in 1615. After his travels via Augsburg, Stuttgart and the Netherlands, Merian came to Frankfurt am Main and Oppenheim in 1616, where he worked for the publisher and engraver Johann Theodor de Bry. In 1620, Merian moved back to his hometown of Basel, where he acquired guild rights and became self-employed. After his father-in-law's death in 1623, he continued his publishing house in Frankfurt and acquired Frankfurt citizenship in 1626. In 1627 he took Wenzel Hollar into his workshop as a student. Matthäus Merian died on January 19th after a long illness. June 1650 in Langenschwalbach near Wiesbaden. He was buried in the Peterskirchhof in Frankfurt. After his death, his sons Matthäus and Caspar took over the publishing house and continued to publish his works under the name Merian Erben.

Order number: 266194