Candia, seu Creta Insula

Title

Candia, seu Creta Insula

Map shows the Greek island of Crete.

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 island of Crete is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari from the 18th century BC, which are later repeated in Neo-Assyrian records and in the Bible (Caphtor). It was also known in ancient Egypt as Keftiu, strongly suggesting that a similar form to both was the Minoan name for the island. In classical times, Crete lay on the edge of the Greek cultural area, it was regarded as the "island of 100 poleis" and was therefore divided into numerous small city-states. The stone-carved legal text of the then powerful polis of Gortyn is the only completely preserved codex of this type from Greek antiquity. From 1645 to 1648, the Turks conquered almost the entire island and incorporated it into the Ottoman Empire as Girit, with only Candia withstanding a siege until 1669. Numerous uprisings by the population in the 19th century against Ottoman sovereignty were bloodily suppressed. From 1830 to 1840, Crete was formally under the administration of the Vali of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha. In 1898, the intervention of France, Russia and the United Kingdom forced Crete into almost complete autonomy under the sovereignty of the High Porte. The Treaty of London in 1913 finally made Crete part of the Greek state, and a comprehensive population exchange was agreed in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.