Das andere Buch Neapels die hauptsatt dises künigreichs

Title

Das andere Buch Neapels die hauptsatt dises künigreichs

Description

Map shows the city of Neaple as birds eye view.

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

Naples. The original Greek settlement was called Neapolis ("new town"). Later it came under Roman rule. From the late Middle Ages to the 18th century, Naples was one of the largest cities in Europe. Its political history is marked by foreign domination for long periods, and it was also the capital of southern Italian empires. The history of Campania in the 4th century BC was marked by the expansion of the rising Roman Empire. Some remains of both the Greek and Roman cities still exist. But as early as 568, the Lombards began to conquer Italy, and in 581 they occupied Benevento. The remaining Eastern Roman-Byzantine territories were directed and defended from the Exarchate of Ravenna, which in turn had ducats under its authority. One of these dukates became Naples in 661. The Normans, under Rainulf Drengot, had gained their own territory for the first time since 1027 with the county of Aversa, which lay to the north of Naples. In 1047, Emperor Henry III, accompanied by Pope Clement II, had advanced south to clarify the political situation in the Lombard principalities. In 1442, Spaniards, namely the Crown of Aragon under Alfonso, defeated the last ruler of the French Angevins, destroying large parts of the city and the belt of fortresses already incorporated by suburbs. Under the Aragonese, Naples' economic links with the Iberian Peninsula were intensified, the economy as a whole was boosted and the city became a centre of the Renaissance and humanism. The rule of the Spanish Habsburgs, which lasted until 1707, was interrupted for months by revolts and the proclamation of the Republic of Naples; these events are considered part of the "Crisis of the 17th Century" A marked improvement in conditions only occurred when the Bourbons, who had acquired the Spanish throne as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1712, took over Naples from the Austrians in 1734 in the War of the Polish Succession. In view of Napoleon's successes in his Italian campaign, the royal family fled to Palermo in 1798. In January 1799, French revolutionary troops under General Jean-Étienne Championnet entered Naples. With Napoleon's downfall came the end of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples, and Ferdinand returned to Naples on 17 June 1815. Ferdinand carried out a ruthless restoration policy that eliminated even the last traces of French reform efforts.