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A finely engraved and vibrantly hand-colored map of the Duchy of Brabant and its surrounding regions, published in Augsburg by Matthäus Seutter, Imperial Geographer to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. The map captures the densely populated and politically complex heart of the Southern Netherlands, extending from Mons (Bergen) and Valenciennes in the southwest to Batenburg on the Maas in the northeast, and from the North Sea coast near Zeeland and ’t Graafschap in the northwest to Maastricht and Dalhem in the southeast.
The map is subdivided into numerous administrative units, with five prominently colored regions—most notably including Leuven (Louvain), Brussels, Antwerp, and 's-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc)—that correspond to the major quartiers or quarters of Brabant, but also showing additional provincial divisions with Seutter's elaborate typographical density.
Cities and towns are shown in remarkable detail, with Antwerp, Mechelen, Brussels, Leuven, Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch, Maastricht, and Liège all depicted.
A baroque title cartouche fills the lower right corner, topped by a crowned Brabantine lion rampant and clusters of fruit and agricultural bounty, symbolizing both heraldry and abundance. The inscription reads:
BRABANTIÆ DUCATUS cum Adjacentibus Provinciis studio et impensis Matthai Seutteri, S. Caes. et Reg. Cathol. Majest. Geographi. Augusta Vindel.
Context
Seutter’s map presents the southern Low Countries at a time of Habsburg rule, following the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which transferred control of the Spanish Netherlands to Austria. As such, the map served both as an administrative overview and a symbolic reinforcement of imperial authority in a strategic region long contested between European powers.
Matthäus Seutter (1678-1757) was a prominent German mapmaker in the mid-eighteenth century. Initially apprenticed to a brewer, he trained as an engraver under Johann Baptist Homann in Nuremburg before setting up shop in his native Augsburg. In 1727 he was granted the title Imperial Geographer. His most famous work is Atlas Novus Sive Tabulae Geographicae, published in two volumes ca. 1730, although the majority of his maps are based on earlier work by other cartographers like the Homanns, Delisles, and de Fer.
Alternative spellings: Matthias Seutter, Mathaus Seutter, Matthaeus Seutter, Mattheus Seutter
