Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) - Cosmographia Universalis - arcivescovi di Magonza - 1550

This original sheet is a precious Renaissance page taken from the 1550 Latin edition of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia universalis, printed in Basel by the publisher Heinrich Petri, focusing on the chronicles and genealogies of the German territory (De Germania). The front of the page, marked with the number 599, hosts an extensive and detailed chronological treatise on the succession of the bishops and archbishops of the city of Mainz, tracing the origins of Christianity in the region from the proto-bishop Saint Crescens, a disciple of Saint Paul, and describing the lives of illustrious spiritual figures among whom the archbishop Boniface stands out, renowned evangelizer of Germany who suffered martyrdom in Frisia, and the theologian and scholar Rabbanus Maurus, an illustrious pupil of Alcuin of York. The visual composition of the front is enriched by a woodcut depicting the legendary figure of Archbishop Hatto II (Astone), around whom is transmitted the famous divine punishment in which he died devoured by rats in the tower on the Rhine due to his ruthlessness toward the poor during a famine, accompanied by the heraldic design of the Wheel of Mainz (Rotam Moguntinam), the historic emblem tied to the memory of Archbishop Willigis. Turning the page, the back, numbered 600, continues the narrative and the timeline of the prelates of Mainz who bore the prestigious title of prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire, deepening the biographies of influential bishops who lived between the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, among whom stand out Rudolph of Habsburg and Arnolf of Selenhofen, whose brutal assassination by the citizens in the monastery of Saint James is recalled. The text also describes the heavy wartime devastations that struck the city due to disputes over the episcopal throne, the alternating diplomatic fortunes with the Roman popes and with the emperors of the Habsburg dynasty, explicitly mentioning the year 1459 as a crucial moment when Mainz flourished and the revolutionary art of printing (ars typographica) was invented by Johannes Gutenberg, ending with the re-foundation of the famous University of Mainz by the archbishop Diether von Isenburg. Dimensions 30 x 20 cm It will be shipped by courier