1550 Munster Leaf Italy Jews Ritual Murder Trial Trent

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1550 Description of Italy from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster
Huns, Attila, Ostrogoths, Totila
Ritual Murder Trial of the Jews in Trent
Wars with Turkey

One woodcut picture

Two authentic woodcut leaves from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster. German edition; Basel printing house of Sebastian Heinrich-Petri 1550. Book II ("Von Italia"), pages cclxiii-cclxiiii (263-4).

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 Italy. The top of p. 263 deals with the Huns. In 452 the Huns invaded Italy and sacked several cities in Lombardy; the Romans could do nothing to halt them. But the famine and pestilence raging in Italy in that year compelled the Huns to leave without crossing the Apennines.

The next section describes the rise and fall of Totila. Chosen king by Gothic chiefs in the autumn of 541, after King Witigis had been carried off prisoner to Constantinople, Totila proved himself both as a general and as a political leader. By 543, fighting on land and sea, he had retaken the bulk of the territory lost to the Eastern Roman Empire in 540. Rome held out, and Totila appealed fruitlessly to the Senate there in a letter reminding them of the loyalty of the Romans to his predecessor, Theodoric. In the spring of 544 the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I sent his general Belisarius to Italy to counterattack; but Totila, at the head of an army of Goths and Italians, captured Rome in 546 after a three-month siege. When Totila left to fight the Byzantines in Lucania, south of Naples, Belisarius retook Rome and rebuilt its fortifications. Shortly after Belisarius was recalled in 549, Totila recaptured Rome, going on to complete the reconquest of Italy and Sicily. By the end of 550 the Goths had occupied all but Ravenna and a few coastal towns. The following year Justinian sent his general Narses to Italy in a march around the Adriatic to approach Ravenna from the north. In the Battle of Taginae, a decisive engagement during the summer of 552, the Gothic army was defeated, and Totila was mortally wounded.

The first part of p. 264 talks about the ritual murder trial in Trent (Trento) in 1475. A few days before Easter, Samuel, a Jew in Trent, found the body of a Christian infant named Simon. He had apparently drowned in the river Adige. A number of Jews were arrested (Samuel, Tobias, and others) and tortured during brutal interrogations. The resulting trial lasted more than three years. All defendants confessed to murdering the infant. Some were burned at the stake, some were strangled. Stories spread of miraculous cures which were believed to have been caused by contacting Simon's bones. Simon was canonized as a holy martyr by Pope Gregory XIII. Simon's beatification was reversed in 1965. The trial served as the basis for anti-Semitic writings for hundreds of years. For further reading, see "Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial" by R. Pochia Hsia (Yale Univ Press, 1996).

The last section describes the wars with Turkey and the treatment of Christians in the Ottoman empire ("Tyrannei der Türcken"). In 1479, sultan Mehmed initiated several naval raids along the Adriatic coast that finally led to a peace in 1479, whereby Venice surrendered its bases in Albania and the Morea and agreed to pay a regular annual tribute in return for restoration of its commercial privileges. Mehmed then used his new naval power to attack Rhodes and to send a large force that landed at Otranto in southern Italy in 1480. Success appeared imminent, but his premature death in 1481 brought the effort to an end.

The leaf contains one woodcut picture of a crucified man. See pictures for more details; click image to view larger version.

Page measures 8.3 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; small marginal tears (far from the printed area, repaired). This is a rare and exceptionally interesting historical document which will look great with a mat and frame.

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