Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
This item has been sold, but you can enter your email address to be notified if another example becomes available.
Description

Famous hand-colored engraved allegorical map, representing the battle for the heart.

This is a wonderful and scarce allegorical map representing the trials and tribulations of romantic entanglement, published by one of Germany's greatest mapmakers of the 18th century, Matthias Seutter.

The fortress at center, representing one's heart, is surrounded by "La Mer Glaceé Sans Passion", this is, The Ice Sea without Passion. The moat includes several spots along the "Conseil des fideles amis" (Counsel of faithful friends) and "Attaque de notre foibles" (Attack on our weakness).

"Le Palais de l'amour" is surrounded by "La Mer D'Inqueitude".

There is a key in the lower part of the image expounding on the method for defending and conserving your heart against the attacks of love. It is given in both French and German.

Condition Description
Old hand-color.
Reference
Tooley, Cartographic Oddities, 47
Matthaus Seutter Biography

Matthäus Seutter (1678-1757) was a prominent German mapmaker in the mid-eighteenth century. Initially apprenticed to a brewer, 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, although the majority of his maps are based on earlier work by other cartographers like the Homanns, Delisles, and de Fer. 

Alternative spellings: Matthias Seutter, Mathaus Seutter, Matthaeus Seutter, Mattheus Seutter