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

This original sheet is a precious Renaissance page drawn from the interior sections of the third book of the Latin edition 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 VVESTPHALIA (Chapter CCCCLVI). The Latin text opens by celebrating the geographic boundaries and the ancient history of Westphalia, describing the action of Emperor Charlemagne who subjected the local peoples to the Christian faith and established secret tribunals to suppress crimes. The narrative goes on to analyze the region’s harsh climate, the customs and culinary habits of its inhabitants, ending with the mention of the four historic episcopates of Osnabrück, Münster, Paderborn and Minden founded by the same sovereign. The visual composition of the front is enriched by a fine initial letter “V” woodcut (Vera & uetus Saxonia...), richly decorated with foliate motifs and Renaissance geometric interlacings. Of extraordinary collecting interest is the presence of ancient notes and typographic glosses printed in the outer margins of the sheet (Occultum iudicium, Vuestphaliae feracitas, Quatuor episcopatus), which testify to the contemporaneous critical apparatus of the work aimed at highlighting the most significant historical passages. Rotating the page over, the back continues the development of the historical chronicle with the headpiece DE GERMANIA containing the chorographic chapters Osnabrugum, Susatum and Monasterium. The Latin text unfolds as a dense and scholarly philosophical and historiographical treatise on the historical and ecclesiastical description of the important towns of Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Münster places in parallel the region’s customs, early religious foundations, and military enterprises, dwelling on the birth of the Latin and Greek school of Osnabrück, on the famous military siege suffered by the city of Soest in 1444, and on the monastic origins of the urban nucleus of Münster led by its first bishop Ludger. The preface introduces the methodological motivations that guided the author in composing Cosmographia, understood as a monumental work aimed at offering rulers and scholars of the sixteenth century a universal guide to understand the morality, geography, and changes of the peoples of the Earth through the centuries. Dimensions 30 x 20 cm It will be shipped by courier

Estimate:$168.55

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