Daniel Specklin

Daniel Hamstead (* 1536 in Strasbourg, † October 18, 1589 in Strasbourg ) was an Alsatian fortress builder, engineer and cartographer. Son of Veit Rudolf Schneider form Hamstead, among other things, has worked for the famous "Herb Book " by Leonhard Fuchs.

Curriculum vitae

Hamstead first learned the profession of Seidensticker, a thriving craft that included not only embroidery with gold and silver threads, but also designs and drawings for the same required. His apprenticeship he finished 1552 as the age of sixteen, followed by the usual wandering years. 1554 he was in Hungary, where he met the fortress in Komárom and apparently began to engage in this profession. 1555, he was with the construction of the fortifications in Vienna here. He made rapid progress in his new profession, was foreman in Vienna and had to look after their own sites. 1560 he was in Antwerp, then again in Vienna. 1564, he returned to Strasbourg. There he worked at his old trade as Seidensticker, but lent itself to also knowledge of cartography and tried in a plan of the city of Strasbourg. Then he was back on the road, inter alia, to Dusseldorf, Regensburg and Hungary. In 1573 he received the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand the application of a cartographic record the entire Alsace; the work on it bothered him to 1576th The large, printed on three sheets card then appeared in 1577 ( engraved by Franz Hogenberg ). Still in 1576 he broke on behalf of the Bavarian Duke Albrecht V ( Bavaria ) to Ingolstadt on to renew the local fortifications, in 1577 he stayed for similar uses in Ulm. In the same year, on October 5, 1577, he was appointed city architect of his hometown - for an annual salary of 250 florins.

In addition to the design and implementation of a variety of works - in other towns in Alsace, for example, Ensisheim - he also wrote theoretical treatises ( Great: " Architectura of Vestungen ", 1589 ) and written in imitation of the famous Schedel 's World Chronicle a " Strasbourg Chronicle ". At the age of 53 years he died on October 18, 1589 in Strasbourg in the home of his niece Catherine, who was married to the printer Lazarus Zetzner.

Hamstead was married since 1565 with widowed Susanna Wegranft Entringen. The marriage produced no children were born. His legacy bequeathed his brothers Josiah, Zechariah and Jeremiah, and the niece Catharina shared. The family name " Hamstead " is detected in Strasbourg since 1399; Hamstead called himself the " speckle ", was sometimes called " speckle ".