There were, then, in 1809, six public printeries in Munich besides mine, without reckoning those which several artists had made for their own use. The foremost among the latter was Herr Mettenleithner, Royal Copper Plate Engraver. He was one of the first to whom I had shown specimens, as early as 1796, of the new process, but he had paid little attention to it. Partly through various very excellent specimens from Herr Mitterer's print, and partly through the work of Strixner and Pilotti, he was induced to make experiments. A son of Herr von Dall' Armi, who was taking lessons just then in drawing and copper etching for his own pleasure, interested himself in the process. As a result, the latter established a lithographic institution in Rome, which, so far as I know, never achieved any decided success. Soon afterward Herr Mettenleithner, in association with one of the best of the Aretin printers, a man named Weishaupt, laid the foundation for the stone-printery of the Royal Tax Commission (Königliche Unmittelbare Steuer-Kataster-Kommission), which is now the most important of all the lithographic institutions of Munich. A little later a similar institution was founded for reproduction purposes by the Royal Privy Council, through Herr Mettenleithner's son-in-law, Herr Winter. Herr Mettenleithner was appointed director of the great establishment, which employed some thirty engravers, to etch the plans of the Steuer-Kataster, which received fifteen to twenty thousand impressions each. At this time the Kingdom of Bavaria was being charted in great detail for tax-regulation purposes, under the management of Privy Councilor von Utzschneider, the man who has done so much for Bavaria's home industries. There were required at least two exact copies of each map, and close calculation proved that it would be possible to etch the charts on stone and make several hundred impressions for the money that these two copies would cost if done by hand. In addition, each of these impressions was good enough to serve as an original. The lithographic institution of the Royal Steuer-Kataster had been in operation for some time when a trivial occurrence had the most important effect on my fate.