Christian Sgrothen

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Duchy of Jülich ; Excerpt from Sgrothen's atlas from 1557. Places including: Dalen , Hülchrath , Jülich , Linnich , Erkelenz , Zons , Dormagen , Bergheim

Christian Sgrothen (also Scrooten, s'Grootens, 's Grootens, Grooten, Schrot * around 1525 in Sonsbeck ; † 13 May 1603 in Kalkar ) is considered an important cartographer of the 16th century, comparable to Gerhard Mercator .

Life

Christian Sgrothen was born in Sonsbeck as the son of the notary and town clerk Peter Sgrothen, who was probably born in Brabant. He worked as a painter and cartographer in Kalkar on the Lower Rhine , where he acquired citizenship in 1548 and bought a house on the market in 1553. He married the innkeeper Agnes van Bedber's daughter there. Two children are known from this marriage. Around 1555 Sgrothen began the first mapping of the Lower Rhine area. Since December 2, 1557 he served the Spanish King Philip II as court cartographer ("Geographus Regiae Maiestatis Hispaniae"). The government in Brussels initially entrusted him with the task of mapping the Dutch provinces and neighboring regions, for which Sgrothen wandered through the entire Low German region. From 1568 Sgrothen began his main work, the mapping of the Holy Roman Empire, which was completed in two versions in 1572/73 and 1592, but was never published. He died in Kalkar in 1603 and was buried in the church of the Dominican monastery.

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His work represented the most important mapping of the Lower Rhine in the 16th century. They were the basis for Mercator's maps of the region. In 1558 a map of the Duchy of Geldern and the County of Zutphen was published in Antwerp . This was followed by a map of the Duchy of Geldern in 1564, a map of Germany in 1565 and a map of the Holy Land in 1570. His works also include a photograph of the Amsterdam fortifications (1566).

Sgrothen's main work took him 25 years to complete. On behalf of the king, he systematically mapped the area of ​​the Holy Roman Empire for the first time . The first version, the so-called "Brussels Atlas" from 1572/73 comprises 38 maps of the Central European area in the format 66 × 64 cm, while the second version from 1592, the so-called "Madrid Atlas", 33 maps of Europe and several world maps and maps of the Orient in the format 83 × 64 cm. They cover the area between Denmark and the Adriatic and between Flanders and Poland . Your focus is on the northern German states . The atlases are counted among the most beautiful maps of the Renaissance and were named after their current storage locations.

Sgrothen first became known to a wider public through the research project "Werkedition Christian Sgrooten" at the Mercator University in Duisburg (from 1998).

In 2007, as the end of the research project, the Brussels Atlas and the Madrid Atlas were published in full and commented on in detail by Peter H. Meurer .

literature

  • J. Düffel: cartographer Christian 's Grootens, a famous son of Sonsbeck ; in: Heimatkalender 1950 for the district of Moers, pp. 92–93; Moers 1949
  • Bernhard Roßhoff : Christian s'Grootens from Sonsbeck - A map engraver of the Lower Rhine ; in: 1958 home calendar for the district of Moers, pp. 31–33; Moers 1957
  • Rolf Kirmse: Christian Sgroten from Sonsbeck - His Hispanic Majesty Geographer ; in: Heimatkalender 1967 Landkreis Moers, pp. 17–42; Moers 1966
  • Rolf Kirmse: Christian Sgroten, his origins and his family ; in: Heimatkalender 1971 Landkreis Moers, pp. 118–129; Moers 1970
  • Arend Lang :  Sgrooten, Christian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 131 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Peter H. Meurer: The cartography-historical research project "Werkedition Christian Sgrooten" ; in: Jahrbuch Kreis Wesel 2000, pp. 108–114; Wesel 1999
  • Peter H. Meurer: A card for the trip to London for the wedding of Anna von Kleves ; in: Jahrbuch Kreis Wesel 2002, pp. 7–11; Wesel 2001
  • Peter H. Meurer: The manuscript atlases Christian Sgrootens - map portfolio; Alphen aan den Rijn 2007
  • Peter H. Meurer: The manuscript atlases Christian Sgrootens - commentary volume; Alphen aan den Rijn 2007

Web links

Commons : Maps by Christian Sgrothen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rolf Kirmse: Christian Sgroten, his background and his family ; in: Heimatkalender 1971 Landkreis Moers, pp. 119–122; Peter H. Meurer: The cartography-historical research project "Werkedition Christian Sgrooten" ; in: Jahrbuch Kreis Wesel 2000, p. 108
  2. ↑ Rolf Kirmse: Christian Sgroten, his background and his family ; in: Heimatkalender 1971 Landkreis Moers, p. 126, 128
  3. ↑ Rolf Kirmse: Christian Sgroten, his background and his family ; in: Heimatkalender 1971 Landkreis Moers, p. 126–128
  4. ^ Peter H. Meurer: The cartography-historical research project "Werkedition Christian Sgrooten" ; in: Jahrbuch Kreis Wesel 2000, pp. 109–110
  5. ^ Peter H. Meurer: The cartography-historical research project "Werkedition Christian Sgrooten" ; in: Jahrbuch Kreis Wesel 2000, pp. 110–111
  6. ↑ Rolf Kirmse: Christian Sgroten, his background and his family ; in: Heimatkalender 1971 Landkreis Moers, p. 118
  7. ^ Peter H. Meurer: The cartography-historical research project "Werkedition Christian Sgrooten" ; in: Jahrbuch Kreis Wesel 2000, pp. 110–111
  8. ^ Peter H. Meurer: The cartography-historical research project "Werkedition Christian Sgrooten" ; in: Jahrbuch Kreis Wesel 2000, pp. 108, 112–113
personal data
SURNAME Sgrothen, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION cartographer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1525
PLACE OF BIRTH Sonsbeck
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1603
Place of death Kalkar