Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) - Cosmographia Universalis - Metalli della Sassonia, Divisione Territoriale e la Genealogia di - 1550

This original leaf is a precious Renaissance page drawn from the inner sections of the third book in the Latin edition of 1550 of Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia universalis, printed in Basel by the publisher Heinrich Petri. The front of the page (bearing the heading LIBER III and the pagination p. 871) delves into the mineral riches and the political geography of central Germany, hosting the chapters DE METALLIS SAXONIAE (Cap. CCCCXXXV) and DE DIVISIONE MODERNAE SAXONIAE (Cap. CCCCXXXVI). The Latin text offers an fascinating mineralogical discussion of the ore deposits of Eisleben, Mansfeld, and Goslar (Minera Goslariana), describing bituminous schists, pyrite, and fossil fuels. Münster also describes the prodigy of fossils, stones on which nature has impressed figures of fish, lizards, or even birds. The central portion of the front hosts a splendid woodcut that shows in detail a fossil fish enclosed in rock. Below, the next chapter analyzes the geographic and riverine division of modern Saxony (Saxoniae superior & inferior). Of great historical-collecting significance are the contemporary marginal notes (Lapides fissiles, Natura figurat lapides, Galena, Saxoniae superior & inferior).
Turning the page, the back (bearing the heading DE GERMANIA and the pagination p. 872) concentrates on medieval Saxon history and dynastic matters with the opening of the chapter DE DVCIBVS SAXONIAE ET EORVM genealogia (Cap. CCCCXXXVII). The Latin text recounts the historic wars between Charlemagne and the ancient Duke of the Saxons Vitichindo (Vuitikindus), describing the fierce resistance of the latter in Angria and in Westphalia, until his submission and conversion to Christianity in the year 785 with baptism. The façade is exceptionally rich iconographically: it features at the top left two woodcut heraldic shields attributed to Vitichindo, followed in the center by the branched scheme of the Genealogia Vuedekindi ducis Saxoniae. At the bottom stands a large narrative woodcut illustrating a solemn encounter or an act of feudal submission between a sovereign on his throne and a dignitary, flanked by marginal typographic glosses (Vuitikindus, Babardus dux Frisonum, Brunsuicum unde) which highlight the historical origins of the houses and of the city of Braunschweig.
Dimensions 30 x 20 cm
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