Abbildung der 4. Waldtstätten See.

View of Lake Lucerne and the surrounding land. Detailed indications of all the places and castles present in the region. Representation of mountainous terrain.. Printed from 2 plates.

Taken from Topographia Helvetiae, Rhaetiae et Valesiae, 1654.

Matthäus Merian the Elder was a Swiss-German engraver and publisher. He was born in Basel in 1593. He published numerous maps, cityscapes and chronicles. His main work is the Topographia Germaniae. He learned drawing, engraving and etching from the Zurich copperplate engraver Friedrich Meyer. From 1610 to 1615 he studied and worked with Friedrich Brentel in Strasbourg and Jacques Callot in Paris. His famous large city map of Basel was created in 1615. After traveling through Augsburg, Stuttgart and the Netherlands, Merian came to Frankfurt am Main and Oppenheim in 1616, where he worked for the publisher and engraver Johann Theodor de Bry. In 1620 Merian moved back to his native Basel, where he acquired guild rights and started his own business. After the death of his father-in-law in 1623, he continued his publishing house in Frankfurt and in 1626 acquired Frankfurt citizenship. In 1627 he took Wenceslaus Hollar into his workshop as a student. Matthäus Merian died after a long illness on June 19, 1650 in Langenschwalbach near Wiesbaden. He was buried in the Peterskirchhof in Frankfurt. After his death, his sons Matthäus and Caspar took over the publishing house and continued to publish his works under the name Merian Erben.