Von der Statt Lucern.

Title

Von der Statt Lucern.

View of the city of Lucerne in Switzerland with description.

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a leading Renaissance cosmographer. His most famous work, the Cosmographia (1544), was a comprehensive description of the world with 24 maps, based on research dating back to 1528. Continuously revised, the 1550 edition already included many new maps. It was the first scientific yet accessible world description published in German, illustrated with numerous woodcuts by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1544 and 1650, the Cosmographia appeared in 46 editions (27 in German) and was translated into several languages. Münster’s work combined the knowledge of scholars, artists, and travelers and remained influential long after his death.

Historical Description

The earliest known mentions of the place are ad monasterium Lucernense or ad Lucernense monasterium, monasterium Luciaria and in quodam loco, qui Lucerna ex antiquitate est dictus. The derivations of Latin lucerna "luminary" compares to this day "luminary city of Lucerne. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Germanic Alemanni took ever greater possession of the area from the 7th century onwards. The Alemannic language gradually replaced the Latin. In 1250 Lucerne already reached the size it maintained until the 19th century. In the 13th century, Lucerne was characterized by party fights between supporters of the emperor and the pope and seemed to have already possessed a municipal self-government with a council and a citizens' assembly. Especially from the second half of the 14th century, Lucerne successfully began to strengthen its influence in the surrounding rural areas and to bind lordship rights to itself. In 415, Lucerne was granted imperial freedom by King Sigismund and was thus an imperial city until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Lucerne formed a strong member of the confederation. The city expanded its territorial rule, levied taxes and appointed civil servant bailiffs. In 1798, nine years after the beginning of the French Revolution, the French army invaded Switzerland. The Old Confederation disintegrated and the rule of the patricians was transformed into a democracy, the Helvetic Republic was born, of which Lucerne was the capital for a short time.