1552 Munster Leaf Assyria Irbil Persia Ormuz 1 Woodcut

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1552 Description of Persia from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Munster
Assyria, Irbil, Persia, Ormuz
One woodcut picture

Single authentic woodcut leaf from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Munster. Latin edition; Basel printing house of Sebastian Heinrich-Petri 1552. Book V ("De terris Asiae maioris"), pages 1041/42.

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 early Latin edition of Cosmographia is devoted to the Assyria and Persia (Iran). Page 1041 (top) describes the kingdom of Assyria. Münster talks about Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) who spent his reign trying to maintain the Assyrian empire. There a mention of Irbil (Arbela, Arbil, or Erbil), one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world. It was a centre of communication in the Assyrian empire and long remained a crossroads of caravan routes. In the Battle of Gaugamela, also known as the Battle of Arbela, fought near the town in 331 BC, Alexander the Great decisively defeated Darius III, opening the way for his conquest of Persia. Thereafter follows a brief introduction to Persia and the manners and customs of the Persians. The text describes Persepolis - an ancient capital of the Achaemenian kings of Persia, located about 32 miles northeast of Shiraz in the region of Fars in southwestern Iran.

Page 1024 describes the city of Hormuz (Ormuz, "Ormo urbe"), located on a hilly island on the Strait of Hormuz, between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. After the Arab conquest, Hormuz early became the chief market of Kerman, with palm groves, indigo, grain, and spices. By c. 1200 it monopolized India's and China's trade. The famous Venetian traveller Marco Polo twice visited Hormuz. Around 1300 the Arab ruler of Hormuz abandoned the mainland because of robbers and founded New Hormuz on the island; it gradually superseded Qeys as the most important Persian Gulf emporium, again becoming a market for India, and dominated other gulf islands and occasionally mainland Oman. The leaf contains one interesting woodcut picture of a coat-of-arms with a wild boar with giant tusks and an arrow deeply sticked in his mouth. See pictures for more details; click image to view larger version.

Page measures 8 x 12.25 inches. Wide margins suitable for framing. Printed on watermarked laid paper. The leaf is in very good condition. This is a rare and exceptionally interesting historical document which will look great with a mat and frame.

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