1550 / 1598 Sebastian Münster Woodcut View of Istanbul/ Constantinople

One of the Earliest Acquirable Views of Istanbul.

This is Sebastian Münster's attractive, 1550 woodcut bird's-eye view map of Constantinople (Istanbul), one of the earliest acquirable. It displays the famous city in detail viewed from the east, emphasizing both its ancient ruins and its contemporary monuments, including the Hagia Sophia, the palace of Constantine, the Gynoecium, and the Ottoman Imperial Arsenal. The city's suburbs of Pera can be seen to the north on the right side of the view. The waters of the Bosporus are teeming with ships of every description.

Adding to the Cosmographia

This view does not appear in Münster's work prior to 1550. Münster himself constantly labored to build the work until his death by plague in 1552, both adding to the text as well as ordering the production of improved city views. 1550 saw the addition of many of these. This work was executed by two formschneiders; the famed artist David Kandel, whose initials appear in the lower right corner (somewhat obscured in later states), and the artist known only to us by his initials, 'C.S.' which sometimes appear in conjunction with a rendering of the tools of his trade (a knife and a chisel). It is probable that this 'Monogrammist C-S' was actually Christoph Schweicker; who certainly worked in the right region at the right time.

Publication History and Census

This map was cut by the C.S. and David Kandel for inclusion in the 1550 edition of Cosmographia Universalis. Like most of the views and maps from the body text of the work, it was retained in 1588 even after the double-page foretext maps were replaced. This example of the map corresponds to the 1598 German edition of Cosmographey. The individual view appears in various institutional collections, although the broad variety of titles applied to the work in its many editions makes a methodical census impractical.

Cartographers

Sebastian Münster (January 20, 1488 - May 26, 1552), was a German cartographer, cosmographer, Hebrew scholar and humanist. He was born at Ingelheim near Mainz, the son of Andreas Munster. He completed his studies at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen in 1518, after which he was appointed to the University of Basel in 1527. As Professor of Hebrew, he edited the Hebrew Bible, accompanied by a Latin translation. In 1540 he published a Latin edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, which presented the ancient cartographer's 2nd century geographical data supplemented systematically with maps of the modern world. This was followed by what can be considered his principal work, the Cosmographia. First issued in 1544, this was the earliest German description of the modern world. It would become the go-to book for any literate layperson who wished to know about anywhere that was further than a day's journey from home. In preparation for his work on Cosmographia, Münster reached out to humanists around Europe and especially within the Holy Roman Empire, enlisting colleagues to provide him with up-to-date maps and views of their countries and cities, with the result that the book contains a disproportionate number of maps providing the first modern depictions of the areas they depict. Münster, as a religious man, was not producing a travel guide. Just as his work in ancient languages was intended to provide his students with as direct a connection as possible to scriptural revelation, his object in producing Cosmographia was to provide the reader with a description of all of creation: a further means of gaining revelation. The book, unsurprisingly, proved popular and was reissued in numerous editions and languages including Latin, French, Italian, and Czech. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after Münster's death of the plague in 1552. Cosmographia was one of the most successful and popular books of the 16th century, passing through 24 editions between 1544 and 1628. This success was due in part to its fascinating woodcuts (some by Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, and David Kandel). Münster's work was highly influential in reviving classical geography in 16th century Europe, and providing the intellectual foundations for the production of later compilations of cartographic work, such as Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Münster's output includes a small format 1536 map of Europe; the 1532 Grynaeus map of the world is also attributed to him. His non-geographical output includes Dictionarium trilingue in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and his 1537 Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. Most of Munster's work was published by his stepson, Heinrich Petri (Henricus Petrus), and his son Sebastian Henric Petri.   Further Details...

David Kandel (1520–1592) was a Renaissance artist, a pioneer of botanical and natural history illustration, and a prolific woodcut artist. His personal life is obscure. He is thought to have been born in Strasbourg, in 1520; He married in 1554 and 33 years later, in 1587, was recorded as "owner of a house". He died in 1592. His oeuvre was extremely broad, ranging from botanical illustrations to biblical events, largely as a product of his work as an illustrator. He produced about 550 of the superb woodcuts for Hieronymus Bock's 1546 Kreuterbuch (The Book of the Herbs). He produced many of the woodcuts appearing in Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia, including many of the maps and views, as well as his superb rendition of Dürer's sketch of a rhinoceros.   Further Details...

Christoph Schweicker (fl. 1550) was a German-Swiss woodcut artist living and working in the Rhine region in the mid 16th century. He is probably both the so-called 'monogrammist CS' who produced many of the views for the 1550 edition of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia; he is also probably 'the Master Christoph' who executed the Nicholaos Sophianos map of Greece in Basel, signing the work 'CHS.' These attributions cannot be conclusive, given the lack of biographical information generally available for the woodcut craftsmen of this period.   Further Details...

Source

Münster, S., Cosmographey, (Basel: Petri) 1598.    

The Cosmographia Universalis, one of the greatest geographical and historical works of the 16th century, 'taught nearly three generations of laymen most of what they knew about the world beyond their native places' (Strauss). Filled with maps, views, and rich descriptions of places throughout Europe and beyond, it was the best general source of geographical information until the advent of Ortelius' Theatrum. It was first issued by Sebastian Munster (1488 - 1552) in its 1544 German edition, and stayed in print long after its author's death in thirty-five editions, and five languages. (Of these, the 1550 and 1552 editions are widely regarded as the most complete and truest to the author's intentions; thereafter, later editors continued to add to the work's text; editions from 1588 onwards employed an entirely different set of maps produced on Ortelius' model.) Munster's goal, initially, was to rally his homeland's humanists and scholars to produce a new map of Germany in order to 'see what kind of a land our ancestors conquered for their home... bring honor to our country and place its beauties in the clear light of day.' Munster's project quickly expanded to cover the known world in its scope to produce a 'sufficiently large volume, in which I touch upon the foundation of all nations and kingdoms, their peculiarities, rivers, mountains, customs of men, royal successions, origins of the more important cities, succinct histories, religions, characteristics and fertility of lands... in Germany, however, I tarry a little longer'. Munster's methodology in Cosmographia is notable in particular for his dedication to providing his readers with direct access to firsthand reports of his subjects wherever possible. Many of the maps were the result of his own surveys; others, the fruit of an indefatigable letter-writing campaign to scholars, churchmen, and princes throughout Europe, amicably badgering them for maps, views, and detailed descriptions of their lands. For lands further afield than his letters could reach, Munster relied on the best that the authorities of northern European scholarship could offer: he was well familiar with the work of Waldseemuller and other geographers of the early 16th century and was well connected with the best geographers of his own generation. A disproportionate number of the maps of Cosmographia show contemporary geographical knowledge of their respective areas for the very first time: The first map to show the continents of the Western Hemisphere; the first map to focus on the continent of Asia; the first modern map to name the Pacific Ocean; the first map to use a key; the first modern map of the British Isles and so on. Even in cases where earlier maps exist, Munster's works very often remain the earliest such acquirable by the collector.

Condition

Very good. Some creasing at centerfold.

References

OCLC 494274120.