1628 Munster Woodcut Leaf Ravenna Imola Italy Exarchs

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1628 Description of Emilia-Romagna in Italy from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster
Ravenna, Imola
One Splendid Woodcut Leaf; The Exarchate of Ravenna

Single authentic woodcut leaf from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster. German edition; Basel printing house of Sebastian Heinrich-Petri 1628. Book III ("Von Italia"), pages 475-476.

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.

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 last edition of Cosmographia is devoted to Emilia-Romagna in Italy. Most of the leaf deals with Ravenna. With the fall of the Western Empire in 476, Ravenna became the capital of the first barbarian ruler of Italy, Odoacer, who in turn surrendered it to the Ostrogothic king Theuderic in 493. Theuderic made Ravenna the capital of the Ostrogothic kingdom, but in 540 Ravenna was occupied by the great Byzantine general Belisarius and was subsequently made an imperial exarchate. As the capital of the Exarchate of Ravenna, the city was the administrative centre of Byzantine government in Italy. Page 475 contains the list of the Exarchs of Ravenna, beginning with Longinus (569) and ending with Eutychius (728-752). The exarchate was broken up by revolts and invasions after 726. About 751 Ravenna itself fell to the Lombards, who in turn lost it to the Franks in 754 under the leadership of Pippin III the Short. He gave Ravenna to the pope in 757; the local archbishops, however, retained almost princely powers. A short-lived bid for independence on Ravenna's part in the mid-12th century was followed in the 14th and early 15th centuries by the rule of the da Polenta family, a noble house of the Romagna region. In 1441 Venice was able to establish direct rule over Ravenna, but in 1509 the city was returned to the Papal States. In 1512, following the Battle of Ravenna, the city was seized by the French but was soon recaptured. Thereafter it was subject to papal rule with only minor interruptions. The leaf talks about history of Ravenna and the city itself, including churces, major buildings, etc.

The second section is devoted to Imola - a town, comune and episcopal see in the province of Bologna ("Bononia"), located on the Santerno river. The city was anciently called Forum Cornelii, after the Roman dictator L. Cornelius Sulla, who founded it about 82 BCE. See scans for more details; click image to view larger version.

The leaf measures 8.8 x 13.7 inches. Printed on laid paper. The leaf is in good condition. Imperfections: minor browning. This is a rare and exceptionally interesting historical document which will look great with a mat and frame.

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