Salin die namhaffte Stadt in Burgund nach ihrer Figur und Gelegenheit abgemalet

Title

Salin die namhaffte Stadt in Burgund nach ihrer Figur und Gelegenheit abgemalet

Half bird´s eye of Salin

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 present region was already inhabited by people in the Paleolithic Age. The Duchy of Burgundy was ruled by a side line of the French royal house, the Capetians, from 1032 to 1361. It passed to Philip of Valois in 1363, who founded the House of Burgundy as a collateral line of the French royal house of Valois. The duchy was dissolved after the French Revolution in the course of the division of the state into departments in 1790; with it disappeared the name Burgundy for a political-administrative unit.