Seutter, George Matthæus, the elder

Planisphærium coeleste. Augsburg, ca. 1740



Full sheet (20½ x 23⅛ in.; 521 x 591). Contemporary handcoloring; a little browning along center fold, fold guarded on the verso.

Joannes Lucas Spizenperger (engraved armorial bookplate on verso)

George Matthæus Seutter (1678-1757) learned the map publishing business as an apprentice to J. B. Homann of Nuremberg. In 1707, he moved to Augsburg where he established himself as Homann's main rival, becoming Geographer to the Imperial Court in 1715. About 1740 he produced a splendid copy of Georg Christoph Eimmart's influential map of the heavens and stars (first published in 1705).  Heavenly figures float upon clouds above the title banner. Below the banner, the double hemisphere celestial chart shows the northern and southern sky with constellations in allegorical form. A diagram in the upper right corner showing the monthly orbit and illumination of the moon, while another in the upper left represents day and night on the earth with quotations from Genesis. At the bottom of the map five diagrams show the monthly orbit of the moon, a Tychonic model of the planetary system, the Copernican system, Ptolemaic planetary theory, and the relation of annual orbit of the sun and the seasons.