One of the most prolific and influential map publishers in Germany during the eighteenth century, Matthaus Seutter initially entered into a career in the brewing business before apprenticing as an engraver under Johann Baptist Homann. He soon relocated from Nuremberg to Augsburg in order to start his own cartographic publishing business, and after several years of financial difficulty, he finally established himself as the head of one of the city's leading firms. His maps, most of which were based on those of earlier cartographers published by the Homann and Delisle firms, proved so successful that he was made Imperial Geographer by Charles VI.

Published in 1730, the two-volume 'Atlas Novus Sive Tabulae Geographicae' is generally regarded as Seutter's finest work; it was an expansion on his 'Atlas Geographicus' of 1720, and would go on to be reissued and expanded in multiple editions both during his lifetime and posthumously. The atlas contained a view of Jerusalem drawn after Christian van Adrichom. For a full description of Adrichom's original view, please see item 607. Seutter has retained all the details from van Adrichom's image, including the 14 sites of the Stations of the Cross, as well as the hundreds of key buildings, monuments, places, and scenes all numbered and identified in the accompanying text.

He has also added, however, an incredibly long note below the map describing the history, geography, and religious significance of Jerusalem. Along the upper edge of the map, the long title is given in both Latin and German, and beneath it is the Jerusalem cross, rather than Adrichom's own crest, as found on the prototype.