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1550 / 1595 Münster view of Freising, Bavaria, Germany
Freising-munster-1550$125.00
Title
Die Bischoffliche Statt Freisingen im Bayerlandt zwischen Landtshût und Muenchen gelegen.
1550 (undated) 11 x 14.25 in (27.94 x 36.195 cm)
1550 (undated) 11 x 14.25 in (27.94 x 36.195 cm)
Description
An old-color 1592 woodcut Münster view of the medieval university town of Freising, Bavaria, as the title describes it, 'The episcopal town of Freisingen in Bavaria between Landtschut and Munich'. One of the oldest settlements of Bavaria, the view presents the city from the north, upon its two prominent hills. Freising was an important diocese, and the view highlights the city's cathedral and churches.
The view is embellished with the arms of the Prince-Bishop of Freising (who had supplied the view to Münster) and the arms of the city itself, featuring the saddled bear of Saint Corbinian. (In the saint's hagiography, whilst en route to Rome, a bear killed his packhorse. The saint successfully commanded the bear to carry the load the rest of the way to Rome.) A church dedicated to the Saint can be seen atop the hill overlooking the town.
The view is embellished with the arms of the Prince-Bishop of Freising (who had supplied the view to Münster) and the arms of the city itself, featuring the saddled bear of Saint Corbinian. (In the saint's hagiography, whilst en route to Rome, a bear killed his packhorse. The saint successfully commanded the bear to carry the load the rest of the way to Rome.) A church dedicated to the Saint can be seen atop the hill overlooking the town.
Publication History and Census
This woodcut, made to two blocks, was executed for inclusion in the expanded 1550 edition of Münster's Cosmographia, and it remained in that work for the remainder of its long publication history. The present example conforms, both typographically and in its state changes, to the 1592 German edition of the book published by Sebastian Petri. While we hesitate to designate any Münster map's color as original, the very attractive color embellishing this example shows evidence of age, which may date from sixteenth or seventeenth century.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. More by this mapmaker...
Heinrich von der Pfalz, or Henry of the Palatinate, (1487 - 1552) was a German Catholic bishop. He was descended from the House of Wittelsbach and was a son of Philip, Elector Palatine. From 1524 until his death in 1552 he was the Bishop oF Worms. He was made Bishop of Utrecht in 1524, but this inserted him in a power struggle which would lead him to resign the position in 1529, returning to the calmer bishopric of Worms. He would be appointed in 1541 Bishop of Freising. While it is unlikely he drew the view himself, he is known to have provided Sebastian Münster a drawing of the city of Freising in Bavaria for inclusion in Cosmographia. Learn More...
Heinrich Petri (1508 - 1579) and his son Sebastian Henric Petri (1545 – 1627) were printers based in Basel, Switzerland. Heinrich was the son of the printer Adam Petri and Anna Selber. After Adam died in 1527, Anna married the humanist and geographer Sebastian Münster - one of Adam's collaborators. Sebastian contracted his stepson, Henricus Petri (Petrus), to print editions of his wildly popular Cosmographia. Later Petri, brought his son, Sebastian Henric Petri, into the family business. Their firm was known as the Officina Henricpetrina. In addition to the Cosmographia, they also published a number of other seminal works including the 1566 second edition of Nicolaus Copernicus's De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium and Georg Joachim Rheticus's Narratio. Learn More...
Source
Münster, Sebastian, Cosmographey (Basel: Petri) 1592.
Condition
Good. Some scuffing to centerfold with minor impact to cloud area, else very good with attractive old hand color.
References
OCLC 699031390 (1550).