Matthäus Seutter was born in Augsburg in 1685, the son of a goldsmith. Seutter began his studies in Nuremberg in 1697, subsequently working in the publishing house of Jeremias Wolff in Augsburg. He founded the Seutter publishing house and print shop in 1710, producing maps, atlases, and globes. Very few original maps were printed there, as Augsburg at that time had no university and none of the necessary connections to the fields of mathematics or the natural sciences. Therefore Seutter copied the work of other cartographers, making his own engravings based on their models (approximately 500 pieces). His "Geographical Atlas or an Accurate Depiction of the Whole World" ("Atlas Geographicus oder Accurate Vorstellung der ganzen Welt") appeared in 1725 with 46 maps, the "Large Atlas" ("Grosser Atlas") in 1734 with 131 maps, and the pocket atlas "Small Atlas" ("Atlas minor") in 1744 with 64 maps. After Matthäus Seutter died in 1757, his son, Albrecht Karl, his son-in-law Conrad Tobias Lotter, and his business partner Johann Michael Probst ran the business for five more years.