La situation, et figure de la cité de Francfort, comme elle est auio ard’huy.-

Title

La situation, et figure de la cité de Francfort, comme elle est auio ard’huy.-

Half bird show view of the city of Frankfurt am Main, with a splendid border and depiction of the coat of arms.

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

Frankfurt am Main was first mentioned on 794 in a document by Charlemagne for the St. Emmeram monastery in Regensburg. A settlement of the cathedral hill has already been proven for the Neolithic period. As a result, a Roman military camp and a Franconian royal court were probably built at the same location.The Golden Bull of 1356 confirmed Frankfurt from 1356 as the permanent electoral city of the Roman kings, after most of the royal elections had taken place here since 1147. From 1562 the imperial coronations also took place in Frankfurt, most recently in 1792 that of the Habsburg Franz II.In 1742 Frankfurt became a residence for almost three years. Since Emperor Charles VII, who came from the House of Wittelsbach, could not return to his homeland, the Electorate of Bavaria occupied by Habsburg troops, after his coronation, he was forced to live in the Barckhaus an der Zeil until October 1744. With the end of the Old Reich, the sovereignty of Frankfurt as an imperial city also ended. In 1806 it fell under the rule of Prince Theodor von Dalberg, who united it with the Principality of Regensburg and the Principality of Aschaffenburg as well as the Imperial City of Wetzlar to form an independent state within the Confederation of the Rhine, the state of the Prince. In 1810 Dalberg ceded the Principality of Regensburg to Bavaria, received the Principality of Hanau and the Principality of Fulda, and became Grand Duke of Frankfurt. With the collapse of the Napoleonic system, Dalberg abdicated as Grand Duke of Frankfurt in 1813. In 1813 the independence of the city and its territory was restored and its imperial city constitution was reinstated. The previous prefect Friedrich Maximilian von Günderrode took over the provisional management of the administration as the city school hotline. At the Vienna Congress, the Kingdom of Bavaria planned to annex Frankfurt, but on June 8, 1815 the Congress decided to restore Frankfurt as a free city within the German Confederation. Along with Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, it was one of four free cities that were able to maintain their traditional urban freedom up to the modern era.