Mantua

Title

Mantua

Map shows the city of Mantua in Lombardia

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

Mantua was founded by the Etruscans, for its mythical founding story is named the Greek seeress Manto. In 804 the Roman Catholic bishopric of Mantua was founded. Since 1328 the noble family of the Gonzaga ruled there, who were raised by the Roman-German emperors to counts in 1362, to margraves (Marchesi) in 1433 and to dukes in 1530. In 1536, Emperor Charles V also granted the Gonzaga, as a loyal ally, the rule over the important margraviate of Monferrato on the often contested French-Italian border. For a time, they thus rose to become one of the most important dynasties of princes in Italy. The extinction of the main Mantuan Gonzaga line in 1627 triggered the War of the Mantuan Succession between France and the Habsburgs over the strategically important duchy, which abruptly ended the economic and cultural prosperity of the country. In 1631, the Habsburg emperor had to recognize the French succession candidates, the dukes of Gonzaga-Nevers, as the new rulers of Mantua. Since they were again on the French side against Austria in the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701, the emperor deposed them in 1708; Mantua was since then a direct part of the Habsburg Empire. During the Coalition Wars, the city, which had been part of the Habsburg Duchy of Milan since 1745, was fought over several times. Napoleon was able to capture Mantua after a month-long siege in early 1797, but it was lost again as early as 1799. In 1814 Mantua became Austrian again and only in 1866, as a result of the German War, did it become part of Italy.