Seutter's Atlas Minor

Matthäus Seutter’s Atlas Minor was a reduced-format version of his celebrated Atlas Novus, created to make his maps more affordable and widely accessible. Probably first issued in Augsburg around 1730 with about 50 maps, it was expanded and reissued in multiple editions until after Seutter’s death in 1757. The Atlas Minor Praecipua Orbis Terrarum Imperia, Regna et Provincias contained finely engraved, hand-coloured maps of the known world, many adapted from his larger works. Later issues, bearing Seutter’s imperial privilege, included some maps re-engraved by his son Albrecht Carl Seutter and son-in-law Tobias Conrad Lotter. Featuring allegorical frontispieces, twin hemispherical world maps, and around thirty regional plates (c.195 × 260 mm), it retained Seutter’s richly baroque cartouches and decorative style. Compact yet ornate, the Atlas Minor became one of the most influential and widely circulated German atlases of the mid-18th century, securing Seutter’s reputation as a leading European cartographer.