The map is a decorative copperplate engraving of geographic and cartographic symbols and conventions, intended for educating students. Its design and labels serve as pedagogical tool, depicting an invented geography teeming with a dense array of cultural and topographical elements: lakes, rivers, archipelagos, mountain ranges, and oceans, as well as grand duchies and other political boundaries. There are miniature town plans, universities, ecclesiastical buildings, bridges, high roads, and fortresses. The imaginary landscape allows features that would ordinarily be dispersed across many different maps to be assembled within a single composition. Seutter includes a plethora of annotations and visual precedents for the aspiring map maker to use as references in their own work. (Ruderman, 2026)

Ex Carta

This elaborate engraved plate by Matthäus Seutter presents an imaginary landscape designed to illustrate the conventions and symbols of cartography. Created as a teaching aid, it gathers rivers, mountains, cities, and other map features into a single invented geography, offering students a visual guide to the craft of map making.

The son of a goldsmith, German engraver and map publisher Matthäus Seutter (1678–1757) trained in Nuremberg under the cartographer Johann Baptist Homann before returning to his native Augsburg, where he established his own publishing business. In 1731 or 1732 he received the title of ‘Imperial Geographer’ from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740). After Seutter’s death, the business was continued by his son and his son-in-law, establishing an engraving and publishing dynasty that lasted into the nineteenth century. As well as conventional topographical and world maps, Seutter produced more unusual cartographic works, including educational and imaginary maps. His 

Map of Natural Geography or Synoptic Table

The elaborate title cartouche at the lower left presents an allegory of geographical knowledge and the measurement of the Earth. Its text reads: ‘Map of Natural Geography, or Synoptic Table, containing and illustrating at a single glance all the physical and technical terms encountered upon the terrestrial globe; devised and embellished for the use of studious youth by Matthäus Seutter, geographer to His Sacred Imperial Majesty at Augsburg.’

The map is a decorative copperplate engraving of geographic and cartographic symbols and conventions, intended for educating students. Its design and labels serve as pedagogical tool, depicting an invented geography teeming with a dense array of cultural and topographical elements: lakes, rivers, archipelagos, mountain ranges, and oceans, as well as grand duchies and other political boundaries. There are miniature town plans, universities, ecclesiastical buildings, bridges, high roads, and fortresses. The imaginary landscape allows features that would ordinarily be dispersed across many different maps to be assembled within a single composition. Seutter includes a plethora of annotations and visual precedents for the aspiring map maker to use as references in their own work.

Matthäus Seutter's Map of Natural Geography