Matthäus Merian (1593 - 1650) - Draughtsman, engraver and publisher from Basle

In 1623 Merian took over the publishing house of his father-in-law Johann Theodor de Bry (1561 - 1623) in Frankfurt on Main.Merian made illustrations for the German Bible translated by Martin Luther in 1545 and he created maps and views for the 'Gottfried Chronicle', first published 1629-1632.

From 1629 he published his 'Theatrum Europaeum' in several volumes containing many town and landscape views of Europe mostly depicting incidents of the Thirty Years' War. From 1642 he published - together with the writer Martin Zeiller (1589-1661) - his 'Topographia Germaniae' with hundreds of maps and views.