1561 Munster Leaf Lebanon Syria Damascus Murex Shell
1561 Description of Middle East
from "Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster
Lebanon, Syria
Phoenicia, Tyre, Sidon, Damascus, Antioch
One Magnificent Woodcut Picture: Murex Shell
Single authentic woodcut leaf from
"Cosmographia" by Sebastian Münster. German edition; Basel printing
house of Sebastian Heinrich-Petri 1561. Book V ("Von dem lendern Asie"), pages
Mccclvii-Mccclviii (1357-8).
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 1561 German
edition of Cosmographia is devoted to geography and history of Middle East.
Page 1357 describes Tyre and Sidon.
Tyre ("Tyrus"), a town on the Mediterranean coast of southern Lebanon,
was a major Phoenician
seaport from about 2000 BC through the Roman period.
Probably the best-known episode in the history of Tyre, mentioned
by Münster, was its resistance to the army
of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great, who took it after a seven-month
siege in 332. The Holy
Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa,
who died on the Third Crusade, was buried in
its 12th-century cathedral.
Sidon (Zidon, Sayda), an ancient city on the Mediterranean coast
of Lebanon and one of the oldest Phoenician cities, was founded in the 3rd millennium BC and
became prosperous in the 2nd. It is frequently mentioned in the works of the Greek
poet Homer and in the Old Testament; and it was ruled in turn by Assyria, Babylonia,
Persia, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids of Syria, the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt,
and the Romans. At that time Sidon was famous for its purple dyes and glassware.
Herod I the Great embellished the city, and Jesus visited it.
The name Phoenicians (phoinikes) was
given to these people by the ancient Greeks and was related to the word for the
red-purple
color of the dye ("Purpura") for which they were famous. This royal purple dye was produced by removing,
soaking and heating the glands of mollusks belonging to the genus Murex (a marine snail).
As many as 10,000 mollusks were needed to produce a single gram of the dye. The purple dye was
a highly valued commodity and garments dyed royal purple were very expensive.
The leaf containts
one woodcut picture
of Genus Murex emerging from its shell.
The shell is armoured with spikes.
The next section on p. 1358 describes Damascus;
its history
and beautiful gardens. Münster mentions
Saint Paul the Apostle who had a vision of Jesus as he was on the road to Damascus.
Mount Kassioun which overlooks Damascus is a place where Cain slew Abel.
Thereafter follows a section on Antioch ("Antiochia") -
one of the great cities of the Levant, near the Pisidian border in
west-central Turkey. Founded by Seleucus I Nicator (c. 358-281 BC), it
was made a free city in 189 BC by the Romans, who took direct control
about 25 BC; soon thereafter the emperor Augustus made it a colony with
the name Caesarea Antiochia. It became the centre of civil and military
administration in southern Galatia.
See scans for more details; click image to view larger version.
Page measures 7.7 x 11.9 inches.
Printed on laid paper.
The leaf is in good condition.
Imperfections: handling and minor soiling in margins; marginal wormholes.
This is a rare and exceptionally interesting historical document which
will look great with a mat and frame.
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This item is unconditionally guaranteed to be original and as described. We do not sell reproductions or
copies.
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and
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