Old Antique Map of Terceira Angra by M. Merian 1638. Copper Engraving, 8.2" x 12.9" unframed. Appears trimmed and laid down on Cardboard.
Matthäus Merian (1593-1650), the leading German illustrator of the 17th century, was born in Basel in 1593. He learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich and subsequently worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, Paris, and the Low Countries. In 1618 he went to Frankfurt, wherein 1618 he marries the eldest daughter of J.T. de Bry, publisher and engraver. After de Bry died in 1623, he took over his business. De Bry’s business remained in Merian’s family until 1726 when a fire destroyed it. In 1635 he began the series Theatrum Europaeum, and between 1642 and 1688 he published Martin Zeiller’s Topographia Germaniae, with more than 2,000 plates etched and engraved by himself and his sons Matthäus and Caspar. He also took over and completed the later parts and editions of the Grand Voyages and Petits Voyages originally started by de Bry in 1590. Matthäus Merian died after in 1650 in Bad Schwalbach near Wiesbaden.