1734 Separately-issued Seutter Plan and View of Luxembourg City

This is as beautiful, rare, separately issued plan and view of the city of Luxembourg by Matthias Seutter, c. 1734. It illustrates the situation of the fortified city during the renovation of its defenses in the 1730s.

Historical Context

These renovations were executed by the Austrian Habsburgs, whose rule over the city and the Duchy of Luxembourg was confirmed by treaty in the aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714). The Duchy passed back and forth between the French, the Spanish, and the Austrians for many years. As each successive regime took possession, conquerors added to the defenses in an effort to preserve it from attack. Most notably, the distinctive walls instituted by the famed French military engineer Marquis de Vauban, whose fortifications are plainly visible on the map and remain today. Vauban's defenses were augmented under Austrian rule in the 1730s, as visible here.

The Map

The upper portion of the engraving is a city plan, whose most notable features are the modern fortifications. A legend at the top right names buildings indicated by letters on the plan, while other parts of the fortifications are identified by name within the body of the engraving. At the lower left, within an ornamental frame, is a descriptive text regarding the city's location and defensibility, as well as its churches and palaces - oddly, these include the Mansfeld Palace (also known as La Fontaine Castle).

The Views

Three engraved views decorate the bottom of the map. At the lower left is a scene of one of the many sieges withstood by Luxembourg. The city walls can be seen in the background, while in the foreground, a soldier leans on a cannon with a musket on his shoulder. Beside him, in some disarray, are canons, tent material, and a siege mortar. In the middle distance, soldiers are at drill. At the lower right, a seated gentleman surrounded by surveyors' tools displays his work: a plan for the fortress depicted on the map itself. (Is this the famed Marquis de Vauban, or a later engineer under Austria's Charles VI?) Whomever it is, he cocks an eye at the figure in the upper left-hand corner of the view: hirsute, helmeted, brandishing a sword, and seated on a cannon, this can only be Ares, the god of war. (We criticize this choice of patron: it seems that Athena, the goddess of wisdom in war, would have been more apropos, but alas.) The reputation of the strength of the city's defenses remained long after this piece was printed. During the French Revolutionary Wars, the city held out after a seven-month siege, leading French politician and military engineer Lazare Carnot to declare Luxembourg 'the best fortress in the world, except Gibraltar.'

Publication History and Census

This engraving appeared in Seutter's 1734 Grosser Atlas, but the present example appears to have been a separately issued copy, given the absence of any centerfold. We know only one example to have come on the market in the past fifteen years. There are sixteen examples in institutional collections.