Samuel
Mikovinyi (Mikovini, Mikoviny)

Son of a pastor of the same name. Married on June 16, 1727, to Anna Regina, daughter of Johann Wolfgang Gülisch from St. Georgen near Pressburg; they had five children. On November 4, 1721, he matriculated at the University of Altdorf, where he studied mathematics. A letter dated August 8, 1722, indicates that he was permitted to live with Peter Conrad Monath in Nuremberg for six months, during which time he intended to learn copperplate engraving from Johann Georg Puschner. In 1723, he engraved a series of prospects with eleven views, a map, and a city plan entitled "The Most Remarkable Things about the Honorable Nuremberg University Town of Altdorf" (overse octavo), published by Ernst Friedrich Zobel in Altdorf, likely using Puschner's prospects as models. The series of copperplate engravings published by Peter Conrad Monath, comprising 36 views of Nuremberg and a title engraving, likely dates from around 1728, as the Charles Bridge depicted here was only completed that year. In addition to his own drawings, he appears to have used views by Johann Andreas Graff, Johann Adam Delsenbach, and Wilhelm Bemmel as models. On October 4, 1723, he matriculated at the University of Jena. In 1725, he entered the service of Pressburg County as an engineer, where he focused particularly on water, bridge, and road construction. He established an observatory in his house on Lange Gasse (today Nálepkagasse). From 1735 until his death, he worked as a surveyor in Hungary, where his major work, the maps in Matthias Bel's "Notitia Hungariae novae historico-geographica" (Vienna, 1735–1742), was created. In 1749, he was appointed director and architect of the castle to be built in Buda.

Works: For a list of his facades, see C. G. Müller, 1791, pp. 7, 17, 55–58, 90. Museums: Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum; –,

Museum of Contemporary Art Nuremberg. Literature: Thieme-Becker; Nagler, KL and Monograph; Schwemmer, 1974; R. Klier, in: Mitteilungen an der Stadt Nürnberg, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1960. Exhibition: 1986/4.

(quoted from the Nuremberg Artists' Lexicon, edited by Manfred H. Grieb)Feedback geben