1550 Munster Leaf Africa Meroe Races Military Elephant

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1550 Description of Africa from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster
Meroe, Sudan, Ethiopia, Prester John, African Races, Military Elephant

Three Woodcut Pictures

Single authentic woodcut leaf from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster. German edition; Basel printing house of Sebastian Heinrich-Petri 1550. Book VI ("Von den landern Africe"), pages Mccxxi-Mccxxii (1221-2).

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 Africa. Page 1221 describes Meroe, city of ancient Cush (Kush) the ruins of which are located on the east bank of the Nile about 4 miles north of Kabushiyah in the present-day Sudan; Meroe is also the name of the area surrounding the city. The 25th, or "Ethiopian," dynasty of ancient Egypt is believed to have retired to Cush after 656 BC and established itself at Meroe, where it fostered an Egypto-Cushite culture that through the subsequent 1,000 years became increasingly cut off from its source. Meroe was the southern administrative centre for the kingdom of Cush, beginning c. 750 BC, at a time when Napata was still its capital. Meroe survived a Roman invasion - though its status was lowered thereby - but it later declined in the face of raiding Negroid and Nilotic tribes, to fall at the more determined invasions of the Aksumite armies in the 4th century. The text mentions the kingdom of Saba (Sheba) in pre-Islamic southwestern Arabia, frequently mentioned in the Bible (notably in the story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba) and variously cited by ancient Assyrian, Greek, and Roman writers. Saba was rich in spices and agricultural products and carried on a wealth of trade by overland caravan and by sea. For centuries it controlled Bab el-Mandeb, the straits leading into the Red Sea, and it established many colonies on the African shores, in particular in Ethiopia.

There is a comment on Prester John - legendary Christian ruler of the East, popularized in medieval chronicles and traditions as a hoped-for ally against the Muslims. Believed to be a Nestorian (i.e., a member of an independent Eastern Christian Church that did not accept the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople) and a king-priest reigning "in the Far East beyond Persia and Armenia," Prester John was the centre of a number of legends that harked back to the writings of "John the Elder" in the New Testament. The legend arose during the period of the Crusades (late 11th-13th century). In the 13th and 14th centuries various missionaries and lay travelers, such as Giovanni da Pian del Carpini, Giovanni da Montecorvino, and Marco Polo, all searching for the kingdom of Prester John, established direct contact between the West and the Mongols. After the mid-14th century, Ethiopia became the centre of the search for the kingdom of Prester John, who was identified with the negus (emperor) of that African Christian nation.

Finaly, p. 1222 contains a section on various peoples inhabiting Ethiopia, including Acridophagi and Troglodytes. According to Strabo's Geography, Acridophagi or Locust-eaters, are "blacker than the rest and shorter in stature and the shortest-lived; for they rarely live beyond forty years, since their flesh is infested with parasites. They live on locusts, which are driven into this region inside spring-time by strong-blowing south-west and western winds." The Troglodytes "live a nomadic life; and their several tribes are ruled by tyrants; and both wives and children are held in common except those of the tyrants." The leaf contains three very nice woodcut pictures:

• An African man
• A coat-of-arms
• A military unit consisting of an elephant carrying a group of soldiers (2.5 x 4 inches)

Page measures 8.3 x 12.8 inches. Wide margins suitable for framing. Printed on quality laid paper. The leaf is in fair condition. Imperfections: several brownish stains, wormholes; minor handling in margins. This is a rare and exceptionally interesting historical document which will look great with a mat and frame.

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