page_title: Merian family
section_title: Naturalisation in Basel
hierarchical_section_title: Merian family / Naturalisation in Basel
caption_attribution_description: English: Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593-1650), German engraver
context_page_description: Merian is a patrician family of Basel, Switzerland. It consists of two branches who were citizens of Basel from 1498 and from 1549/1553. The family were represented in the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt in 1532 and grew to become distinguished aldermen. Its notable members include the 18th century politician Andreas Merian-Iselin and the 19th century banker Christoph Merian, who founded the renowned Basel charity Christoph Merian Stiftung.
  The younger Basel line includes a Frankfurt sub-branch founded by the engraver Matthäus Merian the Elder, whose descendants became artists during the Baroque period and ran what became one of Europe's largest publishers in the 17th century. Matthäus Merian's daughter was the naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian.
context_section_description: The ancestor of the Merians of Basel is Theobald Merian (c.1415 – c.1505), a Basel episcopal bailiff or steward in Lüttelsdorf (now Courroux) in the Swiss canton of Jura. From him are descended the two Basel branches of the family. The elder line stems from his son Theobald Merian (1465 – 1544), who went in 1480 as a seaman of Lüttelsdorf to Basel and later operated a sawmill on the right bank of the Rhine in Kleinbasel. The younger line from Johann Petrus Merian (c.1468/1478 – after 1519) is thought to be related, as he was an episcopal steward who also came from Lüttelsdorf to Basel, but whether Theobald (the son) and Johann Petrus were brothers and both therefore sons of Theobald (the father) as tradition claims, is unproven.
caption: Swiss-born engraver and publisher Matthäus Merian (1593-1650)
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