Description
This is a Matthäus Merian view of London, engraved in 1638 for inclusion in his
Archontologia cosmica. It was based on an earlier, 1616 panorama of the city by Claes Visscher (1587 - 1652.) The four-sheet, nearly seven-foot-long Visscher is an all but unobtainable rarity, with only a handful of known copies in institutional and private hands. (An example sold at Christies in 2018 for nearly $150,000.) The Merian expertly reduces the image, preserving much of its detail and elegance. The detail and recognizability of the image are particularly remarkable, given that neither Merian nor Visscher ever had visited London; Visscher's view was based on traditional printed maps (possibly including John Norden's