Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) - Cosmographia Universalis...

This original sheet is a precious Renaissance page taken from the inner sections of the third book edition in Latin of 1550 of Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia universalis, printed in Basel by the publisher Heinrich Petri. The front of the page hosts the solemn chorographic section titled LIBER III, expressly dedicated by Münster to the description of the Kraichgau region and to the opening of the historical chapter DE BELLIS QVIBVSDAM IN PALATINATV gestis (Cap. CCCLVIII). The Latin text opens by describing the geographical borders, the forests, and the noble houses of the territory near Heidelberg, then introduces a naturalistic digression on the habits of herons and their deadly aerial clash with hawks, before passing to the detailed military chronicle of the rise of Frederick I of the Palatinate, called the Victorious or the Bellicose. Münster relates how, after the death of his brother Louis IV in 1449, Frederick assumed the wardship of his nephew Philip and the government of the Palatine lands, allying with the Archbishop of Mainz Diether von Isenburg and clashing vigorously with the Papal and Imperial factions that punished him with excommunication. The visual composition of the front is enriched by a fine woodcut showing in full figure the solemn portrait of a German prince in Renaissance dress, caught while tightly grasping an impressive standard halberd. Of extraordinary collectible interest is the presence of ancient marginal notes printed contemporaneously (Ardea auis, Fridericus princeps bellicosus, Bellum ob dotem) which testify to the critical apparatus of the work aimed at highlighting the most significant dynastic and political passages. Turning the page, the back continues the development of the historical chronicle with the header DE GERMANIA. The Latin text unfolds as a dense and erudite philosophical and historiographical discourse on the bloody field battles, the devastations of villages, and the complex peace treaties that brought an end to the regional wars of the Palatinate and Bavaria. Münster places in parallel the customs, the labor of war, and the diplomatic undertakings that saw the capture of illustrious prisoners such as the bishop of Metz and the margrave of Baden, examining the heavy financial penalties imposed and the subsequent outlawing of Prince Frederick by the emperor in 1474, extending the narrative to the great upheavals of the Landshut War of Succession of 1504 under Emperor Maximilian I. The page is solemnly enriched by the important typographic marginal glosses (Conflictus in Palatinatu, Tres principes capti, Proscribitur Fridericus princeps, Schrieffen, Descriptio belli Bauarici). The preface introduces the methodological motivations that guided the author in composing the Cosmographia, understood as a monumental work aimed at offering rulers and scholars of the sixteenth century a universal guide to understand the morals, geography, and the changes of the peoples of the Earth through the ages. Dimensions 30 x 20 cm It will be shipped by courier

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