Von Hispanien 117 / Granata.

Title

Von Hispanien 117 / Granata.

Description

Map shows the city of Granada and a tower church.

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

Granada is the capital of the province of Granada in Andalusia. After the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans, a settlement with the name Illiberis is documented. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the area initially came under the influence of the North African Vandal Empire, was under Eastern Roman rule for several decades after its collapse in 534, then belonged to the Iberian Empire of the Visigoths from the beginning of the 7th century and was then conquered by the Moors. After the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba, the Berber clan chief Zāwī ibn Zīrī seized power in the province in 1012 and made Granada, which was easier to defend than Madīnat Ilbīra, the seat of the Zīrīden dynasty. After the expulsion of the Almohads, the city became the capital of the Sultanate of the Naṣrids, the last Muslim-Moorish dynasty of the Emirate of Granada, from 1238 to 1492. In 1246, the then ruler of Granada, Muhammad I ibn Nasr, known as Ibn Al-Ahmar, surrendered the city to the Christian powers, and after the fall of the remaining Moorish territories, many Muslims moved to the area of Granada. In 1492, the last Nasrid ruler Mohammed XII capitulated and handed the city over to Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, the so-called -Catholic Monarchs, thus completing the Reconquista, the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula for Christianity. According to a passage in the treaty concluded at the time, the Moorish population in Granada was allowed to continue practicing their religion freely, but the Naṣrids had to leave Granada. After revolts by the Muslims who remained in Spain, the so-called Moors, against the oppression (ban on practising their religion, expropriation) by the new rulers, they were first forcibly resettled to other parts of the Iberian Peninsula in the years 1569-1571 and then expelled to Africa in 1609-1611. Many settled in what is now Tunisia and Algeria and shaped the culture there. At the same time, Granada fell into economic insignificance. Silk production, for example, for which Granada was a center in the Middle Ages, declined completely. Granada has been the seat of an archbishopric since 1492. The University of Granada was built between 1526 and 1531 and was one of Granada's main sources of income, especially in the 20th century, after the end of the Franco dictatorship, tourism became increasingly important.