Matthäus Seutter (1678-1757). Novus Orbis Sive America Meridionalis et Septentrionalis . . . (California as an Island). (Augsburg, ca. 1730). Copperplate engraving on heavy paper. Image: 19 5/8 x 22 ½ in.; sheet: 21 ¼ x 24 ½ in. at neat line. Strong impression; bright hand color as issued. Small repair in margin at u/l; very minor marginal age toning. Very good condition.
$1,800.00
Matthäus Seutter’s highly decorative and informative map of America with two spectacular cartouches. The map is based on contemporary European knowledge of America at the beginning of the 18th century. California is shown as an island but with additions including several more rivers on the west coast and two mountains to the north. The Great Lakes are very unusually shaped. The Mississippi is considerably west of its proper course. Brazil and South America are largely exaggerated. The tracks of the early navigators are shown in the Pacific including Magellan, Drake and others.
The map illustrates two large and highly decorative uncolored – as published – cartouches which in themselves tell a story of European conquest. The placement of the two scenes illustrating this work is significant. By depicting numerous symbols associated with Roman Catholicism above a scene of Indians, a subtle message is conveyed: European contact with Indians would yield vast spiritual riches in the form of Christian converts.
Georg Matthäus Seutter was a prominent German mapmaker in the mid-eighteenth century. He trained as an engraver under Johann Baptist Homann in Nuremburg before setting up shop in his native Augsburg. In 1727 he was granted the title Imperial Geographer. His most famous work is Atlas Novus Sive Tabulae Geographicae, published in two volumes ca. 1730.
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