Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) - Cosmographia Universalis - Storia della Macedonia e Oracolo di Delfi - 1550

This original sheet is a precious Renaissance page taken from the Latin edition of 1550 of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia universalis, printed in Basel by the publisher Heinrich Petri and part of Liber IIII in the section devoted to Greece and Macedonia. The text and the accompanying woodcut retrace the most celebrated stories and myths of classical antiquity in the eastern Mediterranean basin. The narrative focuses on the chapter entitled Delphicum Oraculum (Chapter XLIII), offering a suggestive geographical and archaeological description of the famous city of Delphi, perched on the steep and rocky slopes of Mount Parnassus. Münster examines the myths tied to the celebrated Temple of Apollo, describing it as a solemn place where the priestesses (Pythia) delivered their prophetic responses under the influence of subterranean exhalations, defined in the text as exhalations of demonic spirits emanating from a crack in the rock (Officina Satanae). This narration is visually enriched by a woodcut featuring the fortified structure of the Oracle of Delphi Temple surrounded by walls and towers, guarding the rocky valley. Turning the page, the chronicle describes the expulsion and the tragic defeat of the Gauls led by Brennus, who vainly attempted to sack the temples gold and silver treasures, only to be repelled by earthquakes and prodigious storms, and formally introduces the Macedonian section (Chapter XLIIII), tracing its geographic boundaries from Epirus to Albania and evoking the ancient glories linked to the empire of Philip and Alexander the Great, the historic cities of Durrës (Durazzo/Dyrrachium) and Thessalonica (Thessalonica), and the Renaissance defensive exploits of the condottiero George Kastrioti Skanderbeg (Scanderbechus).

Dimensions 30 x 20 cm
It will be shipped by courier