Born in Basel, but professionally active for most of his life in Frankfurt am Main, the engraver Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593–1650) is mainly known for his superb graphic prints. For instance, his Topographia Germaniae (Topography of Germany), which contained more than 2000 individual prints and texts on German cities in sixteen volumes, is considered the first guidebook. These “Descriptions and Actual Replicas,” Merian’s illustrations of the Lutheran Bible, and his Theatrum Europaeum (European Theater) on the Thirty Years’ War secured him a place over the generations of art history, but the great significance of his drawings has only recently been recognized by experts. Lucas Heinrich Wüthrich, the author of, among other things, the standard biography of Merian and without a doubt the most prominent contemporary expert on the Baroque-era genius published the first edition of these valuable discoveries in 1963. Now, in this new publication, the art scholar elucidates in his customarily profound manner the catalogue of these charming little works of art, which has grown considerably, thanks to the many new attributions that have been verified since then.
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