Netherlands - Rotterdam; Merian - Rotterdam - 1638

Condition: good, but slightly browned. Adequate margins. Verso: blank.

A fine bird’s-eye view of the city of Rotterdam, with a key to the 20 most important buildings and gates in the upper left. The coat of arms of Rotterdam is in the upper right.

Matthäus Merian, the leading German illustrator of the 17th century, was born in Basel in 1593. He learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich, then worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, Paris, and the Low Countries. In 1618 he went to Frankfurt, where he married the eldest daughter of J.T. de Bry, a publisher and engraver. After de Bry’s death in 1623, he took over his business. De Bry’s business remained in the Merian family until 1726, when a fire destroyed it. In 1635 he began the series Theatrum Europaeum. 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 volumes and editions of the Grand Voyages and Petits Voyages, initially begun by de Bry in 1590. Matthäus Merian died in 1650 in Bad Schwalbach, near Wiesbaden.