Joseph Plepp

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Joseph Plepp, red chalk drawing by Conrad Meyer (around 1642)
Still life (1632)
Plan vedute of the city of Bern from the Topographia Helvetiae
Map of the Bernese territory (1638)

Joseph Plepp (born October 5, 1595 in Bern ; † May 1 or before May 30, 1642 , depending on the source ) was a Swiss painter, architect, master craftsman and cartographer from Bern.

Life

His first map dates from 1623. It is an oil map of the city of Bern and the Bremgarten Forest , which is kept in the Bern Historical Museum . In 1628 he made a bird's eye view of the city of Lenzburg ( State Archives of the Canton of Bern ) and in 1632 the little card of the Tessenberg Marches, which was controversial between Bern and the Duchy of Basel, was added in 1632 (State Archives of the Canton of Bern / City Archives Biel). The templates for the first time printed in 1642 Topographia Helvetiae of Matthew Merian published views of Aarburg , Lenzburg, Grindelwald glacier and the now so famous Planvedute the city of Bern all taken by Joseph Plepp. What is remarkable about this map is that only the rows of houses are shown in a bird's eye view and the rest is shown orthogonally.

During his activity as Bernese foreman, Joseph Plepp gave the Käfigturm its current appearance. He also brought the system of the Herrengassbrunnen up to date and connected it to the drinking water pipeline of that time .

Map of the Bernese territory from 1638

The most important cartographic work of Plepp is the copper engraved map of the Old Bernese state territory from 1638. This is a map on a scale of approx. 1: 350,000 with a format of 38 by 55 cm.

As a basis, Plepp used the 18-plate map by Thomas Schöpf from 1578. The Plepps map is by far Schoepf's most faithful follow-up map. With the exception of the mountains and forests, it is only a slightly simplified tracing, with the area reduction of 1: 11.5 about 90% of the name being retained. The most noticeable change in content through Plepp was the very precise depiction of the Aare loops below Bern, as well as the new name Nüw Brück , the new bridge near Bern.

From the jewelry on the Schoepfs card, Plepp took over the coat of arms at the top left with the lion as a shield holder and the edge of the coat of arms. At the bottom right, Plepp has added a southern view of the city of Bern that he probably created himself.

The Plepps map is considered to be the best, most accurate and most correct single-sheet map of the old state of Bern . Copies can be found in the State Archives of the Canton of Bern, the Bern Central Library , the Bern Historical Museum, the Zurich Central Library and the map collection of the Federal Office of Topography .

literature

  • Johanna Strübin Rindisbacher: Surveying plans by Joseph Plepp (1595–1642), the Bernese master craftsman, painter and map author. In: Cartographica Helvetica. Issue 12, 1995, pp. 3–12, full text
  • Georges Grosjean : Map of the Bernese national territory 1638 by Joseph Plepp. In: Cartographica Helvetica. Issue 12, 1995, pp. 13-17, full text

Web links

Commons : Joseph Plepp  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Plepp, Joseph. Zeno.org, accessed August 28, 2009 .
  2. a b Johanna Strübin Rindisbacher: Joseph Plepp. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 19, 2010 , accessed June 7, 2019 .