Bey de Stett Basel mit dem für fliesendem Rhein und allen fürnemmen Gebewen

  • Translation

Article ID EUC1096

Title

Bey de Stett Basel mit dem für fliesendem Rhein und allen fürnemmen Gebewen

Description

Map shows the city map of Basel, on reverse shows the bishop of Base, Philipp von Gundelsheiml.

Year

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münsters (1489-1552) is one of the famous cosmographers of the Renaissance. Its real importance in the field of cartography is based on its famous cosmography, which he published in 1544 with 24 double-sided maps (including Moscow and Transylvania). The material for this came largely from research and the collection of information from around 1528, which he initially only wanted to use for a description of Germany, but was now sufficient for a map of the entire world and ultimately led to a cosmography. He constantly tried to improve this work, i.e. to replace or add to maps. In the edition of 1550, only 14 maps were taken over from the earlier editions. The 52 maps printed in the text were also only partially based on the old maps. The great success of this cosmography was also based on the precise work of the woodcuts mostly by Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Deutsch and David Kandel. It was the first scientific and at the same time generally understandable description of the knowledge of the world in German, in which the basics of history and geography, astronomy and natural sciences, regional and folklore were summarized according to the state of knowledge at that time. Cosmography is the science of describing the earth and the universe. Until the late Middle Ages, geography, geology and astronomy were also part of it. The first edition of the Cosmographia took place in 1544 in German, printed in Heinrich Petri's office in Basel. Heinrich Petri was a son from the first marriage of Münster's wife to the Basel printer Adam Petri. Over half of all editions up to 1628 were also published in German. However, the work has also been published in Latin, French, Czech and Italian. The English editions all comprised only a part of the complete work. Viktor Hantzsch identified a total of 46 editions in 1898 (German 27; Latin 8; French 3; Italian 3; Czech 1) that appeared from 1544 to 1650, while Karl Heinz Burmeister only had 36 (German 21; Latin 5; French 6; Italian 3; Czech 1) that appeared between 1544 and 1628. The first edition from 1544 was followed by the second edition in 1545, the third in 1546, the fourth edition in 1548 and the fifth edition in 1550, each supplemented by new reports and details, text images, city views and maps and revised altogether. Little has been known about who - apart from the book printers Heinrich Petri and Sebastian Henricpetri - were responsible for the new editions after Münster's death. The 1628 edition was edited and expanded by the Basel theologian Wolfgang Meyer. With Cosmographia, Sebastian Münster has published for the first time a joint work by learned historians and artists, by publishers, wood cutters and engravers. The numerous vedute are usually made as woodcuts. Sebastian Münster obtained his knowledge from the travel reports and stories of various scholars, geographers, cartographers and sea travelers. Long after his death, "Kosmographie" was still a popular work with large editions: 27 German, 8 Latin, 3 French, 4 English and even 1 Czech editions appeared. The last edition appeared in Basel in 1650.

Historical Description

With the conquest of Gaul by Caesar around 52 BC, the Basel region also came under Roman rule. Thanks to the concentration of trade, crafts and rulership, the well-fortified settlement (the Romans called such fortified settlements oppida) functioned as a regional center. In the early 1st century AD, the vicus on the Münsterhügel extended over the ruins of the Celtic fortification wall to today's St. Alban's moat. From about 250 AD, a period of internal and external crises followed. Germanic peoples, such as the Alamanni, invaded the Roman provinces. At the end of the 5th century, Basel fell to the Franks, who settled in and around Basel. In the first half of the 13th century, municipal self-administration began through a council of knights and citizens, documented from 1185/90, which guided the fate of the community with a mayor (from 1253) and town clerk. After the Swabian or Swiss War in 1499, Basel turned to the Confederation. A change in the council constitution, which secured the supremacy of the guilds, took place in 1521. At the same time, the unilateral complete emancipation from the rule of the bishop took place, in that now the filling of offices was also formally made by the council. The humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, who lived in Basel, had the Greek New Testament with its Latin translation printed here in 1516 and 1519. Both the German reformer Martin Luther and the English clergyman William Tyndale used the second edition as the basis for their Bible translations. Johannes Oekolampad worked with Erasmus from 1515 to 1516 and then returned to Basel in 1522 as a pastor and professor, where he became the city's most important reformer. In 1535, the persecuted John Calvin arrived from France and found refuge in Basel. He wrote his Institutio Christianae religionis (German: Unterricht in der christlichen Religion) here, one of the most effective Protestant writings of the Reformation period, printed in Basel in 1536. In 1648, the mayor of Basel, Johann Rudolf Wettstein, represented the Confederation at the Peace Congress in Münster and achieved recognition of the Confederation by the great powers of the time.

Place of Publication Basle
Dimensions (cm)27 x 35 cm
ConditionPerfect condition
Coloringoriginal colored
TechniqueWoodcut

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