Georg Matthäus Vischer

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Georg Matthäus Vischer

Georg Matthäus Vischer (born April 22, 1628 in Wenns ( Tyrol ), † December 13, 1696 in Linz ) was an Austrian topographer , engraver and clergyman .

Despite his spiritual profession, geography and the art of surveying were his real calling. On behalf of the stands , Vischer created maps and drew cities, castles, palaces and monasteries in the area of Lower Austria , Upper Austria , Styria , Moravia and Hungary . These engravings are often the oldest surviving illustrations of the same. He is one of the most important cartographers and topographers in Austria.

Memorial plaque to the work of GM Vischer on the cemetery wall in Leonstein Oö

Life

Vischer was of peasant descent, attended the Stams monastery school for a few years , but left it due to the unfavorable economic circumstances of his family. As a 15-year-old he saw the final phase of the Thirty Years War , where he served under General Johann Graf von Sporck in Swabia.

In 1648 he was back in Stams, and after the aborted novitiate began an unsteady, not completely reconstructable life. In any case, he worked for several years as a parish priest (in Leonstein near Grünburg in the Steyrtal / Upper Austria and in Vienna ), but mostly as a "free" cartographer. With regard to the acquisition of his specialist knowledge of surveying or mapping, there is no indication. He soon drew maps, fortified places and castles in various royal services. He set new standards in his field: He used the most modern surveying equipment of his time and traveled all over the country himself. His expertise in drawing boundaries and border disputes found undivided recognition and his expertise was highly valued.

Vischer engraving from Schloss Kammer am Attersee , 1672
Colored engraving from Wilfersdorf Castle
Celje , Topographia Ducatus Stiriae , Graz 1681
Würting Castle , Topographia Austriae superioris modernae , 1674
Engraving from Vorchdorf Castle , 1674
Engraving from Messenbach Castle , 1674

After he had received the order for a regional survey from the Upper Austrian estates in 1667 and had successfully completed it, on April 12, 1669 he also received an order from the Lower Austrian estates for a card for a fee of 3,600 guilders, which was also from Melchior Küsell in 1670 stung, appeared.

His atlas Topographia archiducatus Austriae Inferioris modernae 1672 was the first in the year of publication. The photos of the Upper Austrian places in the Topographia Austriae superioris modernae (published 1674) date earlier, the Lower Austria views were probably made in the very short period of 1670/71.

According to the introduction, the purpose of the topography appeals to people from politics, the military, and business as well as travelers who, as specific target groups, should be encouraged to buy or whose “practical” interests should be addressed.

The work is structured in such a way that after the introduction the individual Lower Austrian provincial quarters, each with a quarter map as the beginning, were published in the form of alphabetically arranged double views (two per copper plate = one book leaf). It begins with the “Viertl unter Wienerwaldt ” (including Vienna ), continues with the so-called Mostviertel , then the Weinviertel and ends with the Waldviertel (“Viertl ob Mannhartsberg”). The end of the work is a register, which not only serves to find the respective locations (= views), but also shows the allocation to the "quarter" and the respective rule.

The location views themselves name the respective location in the picture, but do not have any captions. A few views contain more precise designations, mostly structural details, which, however, are also integrated directly into the picture. Almost all of the slightly more than 500 views of Lower Austria's topography were drawn by Vischer himself, but almost nothing is known about the engravers and their contribution to the work.

In spite of his successes, Vischer got visibly into financial difficulties in the last phase of his life and had to sell his books, still existing "copper" (printing plates) and instruments in the year of his death. He died completely impoverished and his grave is unknown. Today his achievements are commemorated with a showroom in the Kollmitz castle ruins near Raabs an der Thaya , Lower Austria .

The Lower Austrian part of his work was reissued under the name Georg Matthaeus Vischer, Topographia archiducatus Austriae Inferioris modernae 1672 by Anton Leopold Schuller in 1976 in Graz as a facsimile print.

Works

See also

literature

Details:

  • Franz Daxecker: A new letter from the Wenner cartographer Georg Matthäus Vischer. In: Tiroler Heimatblätter. Volume 3, 1997, pp. 81-84.
  • Josef Feil († 1862): About the life and work of the geographer Georg Matthäus Vischer. In: Reports and communications from the antiquity association in Vienna. Volume II, Vienna 1857, pp. 7–86.

Web links

Commons : Georg Matthäus Vischer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg M. Vischer's Upper Austria map - click on DORIS online - on the left
  2. ^ The map of Lower Austria by Georg M. Vischer - the 4 by 4 sheets can be called up individually online - Nö regional library
  3. ^ Georg Matthäus Vischer: Topographia Austriae superioris modernae. Augsburg 1674. Reprint at Archiv Verlag, Vienna 2005.
  4. ↑ A map of Upper Austria, newly published as a supplement to the reprint of the Topographia Austriae superioris modernae. Archiv Verlag, Vienna 2005.
personal data
SURNAME Vischer, Georg Matthäus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian topographer, cartographer and clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1628
PLACE OF BIRTH Wenns , Tirol
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1696
Place of death Linz