Keywords: comparison, order, data
“Die fürnehmste und bekanntiste Stätte und Plätze von Burgund Bresse” serves as an exhaustive encyclopedia of all places of cultural relevance in the region of Burgundy and la Bresse at the time of the works publication in 1656. It is the fourth of seven such works which make up the Topographia Galliae by Martin Zeiller. The sources of the information is cited as the authors own experiences as well as those of several other unnamed scholars and writers which have been documented over the years.
The work seeks to provide visual, spatial, contextual and historical information in german language of the mentioned places to readers who presumably have no possibility of visiting the French kingdom.
Small villages are only mentioned by a couple of sentences, larger towns are documented in more detail and in addition to their description is embellished with copper plate images. These images either depict relevant churches, castles or infrastructural buildings some of which also feature layouts of the buildings or they show landscape scenes and how the settlements are embedded in their topology. The third type of image shows an abstracted top view of the town, aimed at providing understanding of its morphology and geographical context. The type of image added depends on which the author deemed most important for each location.
Collecting data in such a way and making it accessible to the larger population can serve many purposes scientific as well as out of pure interest.
Having a conclusive catalogue of information allows the reader to directly compare these foreign places and identify overarching themes in their architecture and construction. Also convention and tradition of the region can be made understood to the layman. The landscapes are quite homogenous and show either peaceful agricultural scenes or tidy and symmetrical gardens. Nature here has been made subject to man. This is also a concern to Johann Philipp Kellern who wrote an introductory statement for the book in which he scolds the Germans who unlike the French have let their warfaring destroy much of the work that had been put into taming the nature surrounding them. Following this statement the book could be read as an instruction manual on how the contemporary town should be constructed and exaggerates it to an almost mythological degree as a landscape shaped by humans in the way God intended them to.
It is also notable that the tone in which the author speaks of the mentioned places tends to be one of praise and admiration, which leads me to believe that he too intended his work to be a source of inspiration and food for thought in his home country.