Das viertde Buch der Welt …..Beschreibung des Königreichs Dennmarck sampt den Mittnächtigen Königreichen/Schweden/Gothen/Nordwegien…

Title

Das viertde Buch der Welt …..Beschreibung des Königreichs Dennmarck sampt den Mittnächtigen Königreichen/Schweden/Gothen/Nordwegien…

Description

Map shows Denmark with Gothia

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

Denmark is a country and sovereign state in Northern Europe and a parliamentary monarchy. Denmark is officially called the Kingdom of Denmark along with the Faroe Islands, which geographically belong to Northern Europe, like the mother country, and Greenland, which belongs to North America. The Danish people are said to have come from Scania to Jutland and the western Baltic islands in the 6th century, where they displaced other Germanic tribes. In the 10th century, Gorm the Old (around 950) united the individual minor kingdoms under his rule. Until 1035, when Knut the Great died, the Danish kings succeeded in conquering large parts of the British Isles. Until well into the 11th century, the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians, among others, were called Vikings, who founded colonies and traded throughout Europe. The only land border is between Denmark and Germany. A Danish minority lives in the former Danish southern Schleswig. With the Kalmar Union, Halland was suddenly in the center of the Danish Empire and, according to the Union Treaty, Erich of Pomerania should have been crowned in Halmstad. In the period that followed, Halland was not spared the wars of the era. In 1434, the landscape was conquered by the fighters of the Engelbrekt uprising and the Falkenberg castle was burned down. In the course of the Three Crown War, the Battle of Axtorna (also: Battle on the Falkenberger Haide) took place here in 1565, during which the Danish general Rantzau defeated a superior Swedish army. Until 1645 Halland belonged to Denmark and was then awarded in the peace of Brömsebro to Sweden for 30 years. Since the Peace of Roskilde in 1658, Halland has finally belonged to Sweden, although Denmark tried again in the Schoen War (1675–1679) to recapture lost territory.