1552 Munster Leaf: Italy, Punic Wars, Skull Garden

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1561 Description of Italy from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster
Marcus Curtius, Punic Wars, Cimbrian Wars
Two splendid woodcut pictures

Single authentic woodcut leaf from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster. German edition; Basel printing house of Sebastian Heinrich-Petri 1561. Book II ("Von Italia"), pages cccxix/cccxx (319/20).

Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and Hebrew scholar whose Cosmographia (1544; "Cosmography") was the earliest German description of the world and a major work - after the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 - in the revival of geographic thought in 16th-century Europe. Altogether, about 40 editions of the Cosmographia appeared during 1544-1628. Although other cosmographies predate Münster's, he is given first place in historical discussions of this sort of publication, and was a major influence on his subject for over 200 years.

In nearly all works about Münster, his Cosmographia is given pride of place. Despite this, we still lack a detailed survey of its contents from edition to edition, during the years 1544 to 1628, and an account of its influence on a wide range of scientific disciplines. Münster obtained the material for his book in three ways. He used all available literary sources. He tried to obtain original manuscript material for description of the countryside and of villages and towns. Finally, he obtained further material on his travels (primarily in south-west Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace). Cosmographia contained not only the latest maps and views of many well-known cities, but included an encyclopaedic amount of detail about the known - and unknown - world and undoubtedly must have been one of the most widely read books of its time. Aside from the well-known maps and views present in the Cosmographia (including the first separate printed map of the Western Hemisphere), the text is thickly sprinkled with vigorous woodcuts: portraits of kings and princes, costumes and occupations, habits and customs, flora and fauna, monsters and horrors. Münster divided his material into six books. Book I is a useful summary of astronomical-mathematical and physical geography. Book II deals with England, Spain, France, and Italy. Book III deals with Germany and surrounding lands. Book IV embraces northern, eastern, and south-eastern Europe. Books V (Asia and America) and VI (Africa) are of modest proportions.

This authentic leaf from the German edition of Cosmographia is devoted to history of Italy. The first part talks about Marcus Curtius, a legendary hero of ancient Rome. According to legend, in 362 BC a deep chasm opened in the Roman Forum. The seers declared that the pit would never close until Rome's most valuable possession was thrown into it. Claiming that nothing was more precious than a brave citizen, Curtius leaped, fully armed and on horseback, into the chasm, which immediately closed. The spot was afterward covered by a pond, known as the Lacus Curtius, which was dry by the 1st century BC. The legend of Marcus Curtius is the most widespread of several tales invented to explain the origin of the name Lacus Curtius.

The second section talks about the Punic Wars. The first Punic war was fought to establish control over the strategic islands of Corsica and Sicily. In 264 BC the Carthaginians intervened in a dispute between the two principal cities on the Sicilian west coast, Messana and Syracuse, and so established a presence on the island. Rome, responding to this challenge, attacked Messana and forced the Carthaginians to withdraw. In 260 a Roman fleet failed to gain complete control of Sicily but opened the way to Corsica, from which the Carthaginians were expelled. A second Roman fleet sailed in 256 and established a beachhead on the African continent. Carthage was prepared to surrender, but the terms offered by Rome were too severe, and in 255 Carthage attacked with a new army built around cavalry and elephants and drove the invaders to the sea. In the years after the First Punic War, Rome wrested Corsica and Sardinia from Carthage and forced Carthaginians to pay an even greater indemnity than the payment exacted immediately following the war. In 219 Hannibal captured Saguntum (Sagunto) on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Rome demanded his withdrawal, but Carthage refused to recall him, and Rome declared the Second Punic war. Because Rome controlled the sea, Hannibal led his army overland through Spain and Gaul and across the Alps, arriving in the plain of the Po River valley in 218 BC. In 216, Hannibal annihilated a huge Roman army at Cannae. In Spain, Roman forces maintained pressure on Carthaginian strongholds. The Roman general Publius Scipio won a decisive battle at Ilipa in 206 and forced the Carthaginians out of Spain. The Third Carthaginian War (149-146 BC), resulted in the final destruction of Carthage, the enslavement of its population, and Roman hegemony over the western Mediterranean.

The remaining part of the leaf describes the Cimbri, a Germanic tribe whose military incursion into Roman Italy was thrust back in 101 BC. Forced out of what is now Denmark by overpopulation and the encroaching sea, the Cimbri pushed southward, eventually swelling in numbers by the addition of their allies the Teutoni and other tribes. They scored victories over the Romans in 113, 109, and 107. Following a particularly devastating Roman defeat in 105 at Arausio, command of the Romans was assumed by Gaius Marius. In 102 Marius destroyed the Teutoni at Aquae Sextiae, and in 101 he combined forces with Quintus Lutatius Catulus to annihilate, at Campi Raudii near Vercellae (Vercelli), the entire Cimbri army. Today, the remnants of their culture (including a German dialect) can be found in Italy (Trento), Switzerland (Luzern), and in southern Germany.

The leaf contains two splendid woodcut pictures:

• Marcus Curtius leaping into a chasm
• A garden surrounded by a wall made of human skulls.

Page measures 7.75 x 11.75 inches Printed on laid paper. The leaf is in good condition. Imperfections: minor soiling and handling in margins; one small marginal repair. It is rare and exceptionally interesting historical document which will look great with a mat and frame.

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