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Matthew Merian

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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MATTHEW MERIAN (1593-1650), Swiss engraver, was born in Basel, on the 25th of September 1593. The family came originally from near Delemont, but in his grandfather's time settled in Basel, where in 1553 it obtained the burghership of the city. As Matthew early showed signs of artistic tastes, he was placed (1609) under the care of Dietrich Meyer, a painter and engraver of Zurich (1572-1658). He went on to Nancy in 1613, where he already displayed considerable talents as an engraver on copper. After studying in Paris, Stuttgart (1616) and the Low Countries, he came to Frankfort, where in 1618 he married the eldest daughter of J. T. de Bry, who was a publisher and bookseller as well as an engraver. Merian worked for some time with his father-in-law in Oppenheim, but then returned to Basel, whence he came back (1624) to Frankfort after Bry's death (1623), in order to take over his business; this remained in his family till 1726, when, after a great fire that destroyed most of the books in stock, it came to an end. In 1625 Merian became a burgher of Frankfort, then the great centre of the book trade in Germany, and lived there till his death on the 22nd of June 1650. Among his many works two deserve to be specially mentioned. The first is the long series of works, each entitled Topographia, which contained descriptions of various countries, illustrated by copper plates, largely done by Merian himself, while the accompanying text was due to Martin Zeiller (1589-1661), an Austrian by birth. The first volume was published in 1642 and described Switzerland, with the Grisons and the Valais; it contains the first known view of the glaciers of Grindelwald. "Austria" appeared in 1649, but the volume relating to Upper Saxony and Bohemia (1650) was the last issued by Merian himself. "France" appeared in 1655-1656, while in 1688 the series (extending to 30 parts, in 18 vols.) came to an end with "Italy," the volume as to Rome having appeared in 1681. The other great enterprise of Merian was the series entitled Theatrum Europaeum, which appeared in 21 parts between 1635 and 1738 - it is a historical chronicle of events in Europe from 1617 onwards. In1625-1630Merian published a series of illustrations to the Bible, and in 1649 a Dance of Death. But he is best remembered by his views of towns, which have very considerable historical value. His best pupil, Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677), of Prague, settled in London (1635-1643, 1652-1677), and worthily carried on the Merian tradition. (W. A. B. C.) See Life, by H. Eckardt (Basel, 1887).

A city of Mexico and capital of the state of Yucatan, 23 m. by rail S. of Progreso, its port on the Gulf of Mexico. Pop. (1900), 43,630, the Maya element being predominant. Merida is the centre of an isolated railway system, connected with the ports of Progreso and Campeche, and having short lines radiating in all directions to Peto, Valladolid and Izamal. It stands on a broad, partly open plain near the northern border of the peninsula, where the thin loose soil covering a limestone foundation permits the rapid percolation and evaporation of the rainfall, and therefore supports a comparatively scanty vegetation. It is highly favourable to maguey cultivation, however, and Merida is the centre of the henequen, or sisal fibre, industry. There is an imposing 16th-century cathedral facing upon the principal plaza, together with the government and episcopal palaces. There are also an old university, with schools of law, medicine and pharmacy, an episcopal seminary and other educational institutions. The most interesting building in the city is a Franciscan convent, dating from 1547, which covers an area of 6 acres and is surrounded by a wall 40 ft. high and 8 ft. thick. It once harboured no less than 2000 friars, but has been allowed to fall into complete decay since the expulsion of the order in 1820. The manufactures include straw hats, hammocks, cigars, soap, cotton fabrics, leather goods, artificial stone, and a peculiar distilled beverage called estabentun. The exports are henequen, or sisal fibre, hides, sugar, rum, chicle and indigo - all products of the vicinity. Merida was founded in 1542 by the younger Francisco de Montejo on the site of a native city called Tihoo, or Tho, whose stone pyramids furnished building material in abundance for the invaders. It became an episcopal see in 1561.

Merida (anc. Augusta Emerita, capital of Lusitania), a town of western Spain, in the province of Badajoz, on the right bank of the river Guadiana, 30 m. E. of Badajoz. :Pop. (1900), 11,168. Merida is an important railway junction, for here the Madrid-Badajoz railway meets the lines from Seville, Huelva and Caceres. No Spanish town is richer in Roman antiquities. Most of these are beyond the limits of modern Merida, which is greatly inferior in area to the ancient city. Chief among them is the Roman bridge, constructed of granite under Trajan, or, according to some authorities, under Augustus, and restored by the Visigoths in 686 and by Philip III. in 1610. It comprised 81 arches, 17 of which were destroyed during the siege of Badajoz (1812), and measured 2575 ft. in length. There are a few remnants of Roman temples and of the colossal wall which encircled the city, besides a Roman triumphal arch, commonly called the Arco de Santiago, and a second Roman bridge, by which the road to Salamanca was carried across the small river Albarregas ( Alba Regia). The Moorish alcazar or citadel was originally the chief Roman fort. From the Lago de Proserpina, or Charca de la Albuera, a large Roman reservoir, 3 m. north, water was conveyed to Merida by an aqueduct, of which 37 enormous piers remain standing, with ten arches in three tiers built of brick and granite. The massive Roman theatre is in good preservation; there are also a few vestiges of an amphitheatre and of a circus which measured 485 yds. by 120. Other Roman remains are exhibited in the archaeological museum, and much Roman masonry is incorporated in the 16th century Mudejar palace of the dukes of La Roca, the palace of the counts of Los Corbos, and the convent of Santa Eulalia, which is said by tradition to mark the spot where St Eulalia was martyred (c. 300) .

Augusta Emerita was founded in 25 B.C. As the capital of Lusitania It soon became one of the most splendid cities in Iberia, and was large enough to contain a garrison of 90,000 men. Under the Visigoths it continued to prosper, and was made an archbishopric. Its fortifications included five castles and eighty-four gateways; but after a stubborn resistance it was stormed by the Moors in 713. Its Moorish governors frequently, and sometimes successfully, asserted their independence, but Merida was never the capital of any large Moorish state. In 1129 its archbishopric was formally transferred to Santiago de Compostela, and in 1228, when Alphonso IX. of Leon expelled the Moors, Merida was entrusted to the order of Santiago, in whose keeping it soon sank into decadence.