1550 Munster Leaf Italy Milan Lombards Skull Cup 2 Pics

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1550 Description of Milan and Lombardy, Italy from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster
Saint Ambrose, the Lombards, Alboin, Rosamund

Two splendid woodcut pictures

Two authentic woodcut leaves from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster. German edition; Basel printing house of Sebastian Heinrich-Petri 1550. Book II ("Von Italia"), pages cxciii-cxciv (193-194).

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. 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. Of about 20 German editions of the Cosmographia, the 1550 edition is the most valued. Click here for the title page of the 1550 German edition (not included).

Click here for more information about Münster and Cosmographia, including the content and list of editions and artists

This most interesting authentic leaf from the 1550 German edition of Cosmographia is devoted to Lombardy and Milan, Italy. Page 193 talks about Saint Ambrose (died 397), Latin Ambrosius, a bishop of Milan, biblical critic, and initiator of ideas that provided a model for medieval conceptions of churchstate relations. His literary works have been acclaimed as masterpieces of Latin eloquence, and his musical accomplishments are remembered in his hymns. Thereafter follows a section on Matteo I Visconti ("Mattheus"), early head of the powerful dynasty of the Visconti, who for almost two centuries ruled Milan.

The remaining part of the leaf deals with the Lombards (Longobards, "Longobarden") - one of the Germanic tribes that formed the Suebi, and during the 1st century AD their home was in northwestern Germany. Early in the Sixth Century, they moved into Pannonia where they established themselves as a powerful presence. In 546 a new Lombard royal dynasty was begun by Audoin. Audoin's successor, Alboin ("Alboinus"), allying himself with the Avars, the eastern neighbours of the Gepidae, crushed his foes in a pincer movement, himself killing their king, Cunimund ("Comundi"). After the death of his first wife, he forced Cunimund's daughter Rosamund ("Rosimunde") to marry him. Cunimund's skull Alboin had turned into a drinking cup, out of which he forced Rosamund to drink.

About this time the Lombards decided to migrate into Italy, which had been left almost defenseless after the Byzantine Empire's armies had overthrown the Ostrogothic kingdom there. In the spring of 568 the Lombards crossed the Julian Alps, with the women and children of the tribe and all their possessions, with 20,000 Saxon allies and the subject tribe of the Gepidae and a mixed host of other barbarians, probably marching over the pass of the Predil and crossing the great plain at the head of the Adriatic into Italy. Their invasion of northern Italy was almost unopposed. Having swept through Venice, Milan, Tuscany, and Benevento, Alboin established Pavia, on the Ticino River, as the capital of the newly created Lombard kingdom in 572. In 572, Alboin fell a victim to the revenge of Rosamund. She had him assassinated by his chamberlain Peredeo and fled to the protection of the Byzantine representative at Ravenna. After his death and the short reign of his successor Cleph the Lombards remained for more than ten years without a king, ruled by the various dukes.

The leaf contains two interesting woodcut pictures:

• A camp of the Lombards (tents, a horse, an ox)
• A decorative drinking cup made of Cunimund's skull

Page measures 8.4 x 12.8 inches. Wide margins suitable for framing. Printed on quality laid paper. The leaf is in good condition. Imperfections: minor handling and staining in margins; one marginal wormhole; two small marginal tears (far from the printed area). This is a rare and exceptionally interesting historical document which will look great with a mat and frame.

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