Joseph Fischer (cartographer)

[1] He was educated at the gymnasium in Rheine and the universities of Münster, Munich, Innsbruck and Vienna, and Jesuit scholasticates in the Netherlands, Austria and England.

His scientific achievements comprise the discoveries, starting in 1891, of the maps of Martin Waldseemüller of 1507 and 1516, and of Jodocus Hondius in Schloss Wolfegg, Württemberg.

[4] After Stella Matutina College was closed by the Nazis in 1938, Fischer moved to Munich and afterwards in 1941 to Schloss Wolfegg, where he oversaw the archives until his death.

[7] Fischer’s knowledge of history, cartography and palaeography were the reasons that Norwegian-American writer and historian Kirsten Seaver considered him one of the candidates to have forged the Vinland Map.

Robert Baier, a forensic handwriting analyst, examined the map text and correspondence of Fisher, and his opinion was that “they are not the same writer.”[8] His published works include:[4] He collaborated in Jahrbuch des historischen Vereins von Liechtenstein (1910) and contributed to the Innsbrucker theologische Zeitschrift, Innsbrucker Fernandeums Zeitschrift, Historical Records and Studies, Göttinger Gelehrte Anzeigen, The Catholic Encyclopedia, and Stimmen aus Maria-Laach.