4.       Daniel Meisner                                                                                   1637

 Between 1637 and 1677 four different copies of Speed appeared, three in works published on the European market and one by a local historian.



Daniel Meisner[1], an author and poet, was born in Komothau, Bohemia. He planned the publication of a collection of city plans but died in 1625 before Thesaurus Philo-Politicus, Das ist Politisches Schatzkästlein guter Herren und bestendiger Freund, was finished (published 1623 to 1637). The many views illustrated in the work usually include allegorical images and moralizing captions in Latin and German. Once complete, Meisner's Sciagraphia Cosmica was published in Nuremberg in 1637 and reissued the following year. The early editions were published by Paulus Fürst in two volumes. This magnificent work included 800 finely engraved views of cities, forts and castles from all over the world. 

Title:    EXCESTER in Engellandt  

Size: 95 x 140 mm but no scale or signature. 

This version is unique in that it has text panels above and below: Immoderatus Amor Interitum Causat (Excessive love causes death) (top), and Inter Serpentes mirabilis arte cupido est, Faemina namys suum perdit amore virum as well as the German translation (bottom): Between serpents desire is wonderful, for the female destroys its male by love. There is a printer´s mark J6 which was changed to G46 in the second and subsequent reissues (5 to 1704, see below). There is a letter H bottom left.[2]

The map is a very crude copy of Speed, with less detail, little similarity in the street pattern, there are no references and below the river serpent eats serpent. The title is in a small strip and the city coat of arms is badly distorted.



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[1] Both Meisner and Meissner are found in biographies. The complete work went under the title Sciagraphia Cosmica, Oder: eigentliche Abbildung, Achthundert der mehrentheils vornehmsten Städte, Vestungen und Schlösser, so allenthalben in allen Theilen der Welt berümt sind.

[2] It has been suggested that the letter H stands for Hermannides. This is unlikely as the plan by Hermannides (1661, see 6) is similar to Merian (1650) and not Meisner.

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