1552 Munster Leaf Hamburg Halberstadt Minden 2 Views

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1552 Description of Hamburg, Halberstadt, and Minden from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster
Hambourg, Halberstad, La cite de Minde, De la cruaute des Vandales en Saxe
Slavic Invasions; Two Woodcut Pictures

Single authentic woodcut leaf from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster. French edition; Basel printing house of Sebastian Heinrich-Petri 1552. Book III pages 833-4.

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.

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 early French edition of Cosmographia is devoted to Germany. Page 833 deals with Hamburg. Hamburg's history begins with the Hammaburg, a moated castle of modest size, built in about AD 825 on a sandy promontory between the Alster and Elbe rivers. In 834, during the reign of the emperor Louis the Pious, the castle's baptistery became the seat of an archbishopric, and Archbishop Ansgar made the young city of Hamburg the base of his missions to the heathens of northern Europe. Vikings burned the city in 845, and the rebuilt Hamburg was burned down again eight times in the following 300 years. Between 1120 and 1140 some trading businesses were installed, and the foundation of Lübeck, on the Baltic, by Adolf II, count of Holstein, further promoted the economic development of Hamburg as Lübeck's port on the North Sea.

Halberstadt, described on p. 834, is located on the Holtemme River in the foreland of the northern Harz mountains, southwest of Magdeburg. It became a bishopric about 814 and was granted market rights in 989. It was one of the most important German trading cities in the 13th-14th century. Minden (Minde) lies along the Weser River. The emperor Charlemagne organized a military bishopric there in 800. The town struggled for independence from the bishopric, joined the Hanseatic League in the 13th century, and thrived as a trading centre.

In the Middle Ages and later there persisted a common belief that the Vandals were ancestors of Poles or Slavic peoples. That belief originated probably because of two facts: first, confusion of the Venedes with Vandals and secondly, because both Venedes and Vandals in ancient times lived in areas later settled by Poles. This misconception is repeated by Münster, who refers to the Slavs as "Vandals". The section on p. 834 (bottom) writes about Slavic raids on Saxony. The leaf contains two woodcut pictures:

• City view of Halberstadt
• City view of Minden

Page measures 7.3 x 10.9 inches. Printed on laid paper. The leaf is in good condition. Imperfections: margins trimmed; one chip in the lower corner. This is a rare and exceptionally interesting historical document which will look great with a mat and frame.

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