Erhard Etzlaub

Erhard Etzlaub (* 1460 in Erfurt, † 1531 or 1532 in Nuremberg) was an astronomer, cartographer, " Compass farmer" and a doctor of medicine.

Life

" Erhart Etzlauber " became in 1484 the civil rights of Nuremberg, but the citizen book listed neither origin nor profession. Assuming that Etzlaub is identical to the 1468 matriculated at Erfurt University " Eberhardus Eczleiben ", his birth year is approximated with 1455-1460. Nuremberg contracts from 1503 show about a home purchase life annuity that he was then married to a Ursula. By letter it is 1500 and 1507 referred to as an important compass maker and 1507 as " sworn surveyor ". 1511 he was appointed captain in the district on the Haymarket, so held a highly respectable public function. By another letter from the year 1517 is considered proven that he came from Erfurt and at the latest in 1513 also worked as a doctor. 1515 he described himself in his creation " Almanac " ( Wall Calendar ) as " astronomer and personal physician of the high school in Erfurt ".

Etzlaub died childless between 20 December 1531 and 21 February 1532 and left a widow.

The Cartographer

Romweg card

On the occasion of the Holy Year 1500, which promised a large influx of pilgrims to Rome, he led as a woodcut, the " epoch-making " Map This is the Rome Way of meylen to meylen with material points verzeychnet of eyner stat to the other by deutzsche lantt in size of 41 x 29 cm ( approx. 1:5.6 scale approximately million). For the current road Etzlaub invented a simple and useful method: Using the representation by dotted lines could both the course and the distance between two locations can be read. The distance between two points is ever a German mile (7.4 km). In a later edition Etzlaub made ​​the political boundaries marked by different colors. The card is like all the cards Etzlaubs south facing, ie South lies above, the directions are with lunch above, staircase to the left, right and Undergang midnight labeled below. At the bottom of the map a sun compass is also shown and its use explained in a legend. Artist, wood engraver and printer are not given, it can be assumed, however, that the maps by Georg Glockendon were issued.

The map includes the area between the 58th and the 41st latitude, from Viborg to Naples, and from Krakow in the east to about the line Narbonne -Brussels in the West. The roads go from the main towns on the periphery of the empire from, pull through this like rays and run together in Rome.

The data for this must have collected information from traveling merchants and partly probably also taken from the non preserved Klosterneuburger Fridericuskarte of about 1421 Etzlaub. There are known several specimens obtained, as in the State and University Library Göttingen, in the Germanic National Museum Nuremberg, Berlin State Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and the British Library in London.

Highway Map " by the Romisch reych "

An enlarged x 39.7 cm to 54.5 format and be modified map dy lantstrassen reych by the Romisch; of a Kunigreich zw another dy Tewtsche country to encounter miles of miles with recorded material points was trucked by Georg glogkendon zw Nurnbergk 1501. 's son Albrecht was 1533 after Etzlaubs death nor an unchanged another edition out. Today, of these prints only one copy known in Germany, the track of another from the Hauslab - Liechtenstein - library in Vienna lost in America.

The map extends to the 40th parallel south of Salerno and shows the whole island of Corsica ( Cvrsica ). In the West, it was extended to Paris ( Parisium ), in the north of Scotland, was " bent Ptolemaic west- east " in the diagram, developed in greater detail. The left margin lists the individual latitudes from 40 ° to 52 °, at the right edge of the mathematical climates are noted. As with the Romweg card longitudes are replaced by dashes Ten miles 10-210 in the bottom bar.

More maps

The collected data base of Etzlaub was acquired in the first half of the 16th century by major cartographers such as Martin Waldseemüller (c. 1470-1522 ) and Sebastian Münster ( 1488-1552 ), often also the Südung his work.

In addition to this well-known cartographic power Etzlaubs two more cards with security detected:

• Already in 1492 appeared the Nuremberg Map (woodcut, 39 x 27 cm, printed by Jorg Glogkendon ) as the oldest printed special map and political map. It shows 100 places within a radius of 16 miles ( 120 km) to Nuremberg. The cities are already represented by circle symbols instead of the usual yet in Cusanus stylized cityscapes, is also by letters ( r for imperial city, b for bishop city, etc.) notes the political affiliation. For only exists an earlier example, the Koblenz fragments.
• A 1519 published map of the territory of the city of Nuremberg, which was designed by Etzlaub and painted by Michel Nuremberg Count on parchment (scale 1:30,000 approx, 94 x 84 cm).

Other cards are either lost or can not be attributed with certainty Etzlaub:

The compass Bauer

Compass welcomed the foldable travel sundials produced in Nuremberg since the days of Regiomontanus and also contain a compass. They were also used in the shipping industry. Two such pieces Etzlaubs are obtained, one from 1511 is located in the Germanic National Museum, the other from the year 1513 in the United States.

The lid of the instruments have miniature cards in the format of about 100 x 80 mm engraved, covering the area from the equator to 67 degrees latitude and are used for adjustment. Instructions that gave Etzlaub are not currently searchable in Codex ad Compastum Norembergensem held ( State Library in Munich ).

1507 provides Beheim Michael, brother of Martin Behaim globe manufacturer, his brother Wolfgang letter promised to send him several such pieces to Lisbon as soon as Etzlaub they have completed in a few weeks. 1512 John Cochlaeus praises in his Brevis Descriptio Germaniae the artisanal quality of the built before Etzlaub sundials, " which are even sought after in Rome."

That Etzlaubs work was sometimes rumored as a precursor of the Mercator projection, based on flawed studies that Joseph Drecker in 1917 performed on the miniature cards. 2004 comes crutches at the end: Erhard Etzlaub than one precursor ' of Gerhard Mercator to see further remains without fundamantum in re'.

The almanacs

Wall calendars that specify next feast days, full and new moons, and planetary alignments also in more esoteric kind of health recommendations and bleeding times are from 1515 occupied but not continuously receive, although it may be assumed that they appeared annually thereafter. They were, depending on the intended area of ​​distribution, performed differently. From 1520, about four versions are obtained, namely for high pin Eichstätt, City of Regensburg, Pfalz Bavaria and Austria.

Several of his almanacs lead from 1517 also Etzlaubs crest, which, however, the great German coat of arms collections seems unknown: it shows in a gold formed by two oblique and oblique left red bars tray in the center and the four corners each have a red flower. The form shown here with the two capital letters E in the upper plate edge is found only after 1517.