WROCŁAW. Panorama of the city from the south with the allegory of Fortune in the foreground; taken from: D. Meissner, Thesaurus Philopoliticus, ed. by E. Kieser, Frankfurt n. Main 1623; above upper frame inscription: VIRTUTE DUCE, COMITE FORTUNA; at the bottom, sentences in Latin and German; copper b.b., st. bdb., light soiling, passe-partout; plate dimensions 148x100 mm.
DanielMeissner (1585-1625) - Czech and German poet, artist, topographer.Initiator and co-author of the work Thesaurus Philopoliticus, published in1623-1626in Frankfurt n. Main by Eberhard Kieser (1583-1631). Subsequent editions appeared in1627-1631and1637-1638, with texts written by Meissner. The plates were engraved by Kieser, among others. After Kieser's death, the plates were bought by Nuremberg marcher and publisher Paulus Fürst and published in a slightly altered form in1637-1638as Sciographia cosmica. An edition by J.R. Helmers of Nuremberg appeared in 1700. Thesaurus philopoliticus is a collection of 830 copperplate engravings of city views, decorated with figural staffage. The engravings consist of a Latin title in the heading above the city, a Latin two-line verse (distichon) below the image and a corresponding four-line German motto below. The artists paid special attention to the emblematic scenes in the foreground of each illustration and the associated moralistic sayings, while the cityscapes provided only a background.