Von der Insul Caliß und etlichen umbligenden Stätten.

Title

Von der Insul Caliß und etlichen umbligenden Stätten.

Description

Depiction of the island of Cadiz with sailing ships off the coast and the sea god Neptune.

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

According to legend, the city was founded by Heracles; the city coat of arms still refers to it today with the inscription "Hercules Fundator Gadium Dominatorque". Gadir became a thriving commercial center under the Phoenicians. With the expansion of Carthaginian rule in the west, Cadiz came to their empire and developed since about 500 BC. BC to the most important trade center of the Carthaginian Atlantic traffic. Cádiz was famous in antiquity for its sanctuary of Melkart / Herakles (on the Isla de Sancti Petri), which Hannibal is said to have visited before his famous journey across the Alps. With the fall of the Roman Empire, Cadiz also lost importance. After the discovery of America, Cadiz became important and flourishing as a major trading hub for Spain's overseas colonies and as a port for the Spanish silver fleet. Columbus also sailed from a small town in the Gulf of Cadiz called Puerto de Santa María on his second trip to the New World in 1493. Wealth made the city the target of barbarian pirates from Algeria, who raided several times in the 16th century but were repelled, and the target of enemy attacks by the English. The latter destroyed the Spanish fleet in port under Francis Drake in April 1587, which meant that the Armada was only able to set sail a year later. In July 1596 the English, under Charles Howard, the Earl of Essex and Walter Raleigh, looted and burned the city itself, cremated the Spanish fleet again and left with great loot. During the Anglo-Spanish War of 1625, the English failed to conquer the city. In the 18th century, the focus of trade in Spanish colonies in America shifted more and more from Seville to Cadiz because the latter city had the better port. Cadiz experienced a new heyday, which also did not stop the earthquake of 1755.