Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) - View of Chur with the Bishop’s Court and Cathedral, Grisons, Cosmographia - Woodcut (c. 1560-1580)

This is a woodcut view of Chur in the Grisons from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia, printed on a page of "Das Dritte Buch", the third book of the German edition on the German lands, under the chapter heading "Von dem Hof zu Chur. Cap. ccxvi." The page numbering in Roman numerals points to one of the German editions published in Basel before 1588, issued by Heinrich Petri and his son Sebastian Henricpetri after Münster's death in 1552.

The view shows the episcopal quarter of Chur, the "Hof", set on its hill above the town against the mountains, with the labels "Uf dem Hof zu Chur", "Sant Lutzi" for the church of St. Luzi, "Das Münster" for the cathedral, "dz Schloß" for the bishop's castle and "Probstei" for the provost's house, with the town walls, a gate and wooden houses in the foreground. The German text explains that the bishop's court and the canons' houses form a separate enclosure, richly painted and panelled inside, and that the roofs of the town are covered with shingles and stones because no clay for tiles is found there. On the reverse is the text on the communes of the Grey League and the League of the Ten Jurisdictions.

The Cosmographia, first published in Basel in 1544 by Heinrich Petri, Münster's stepson, was enlarged in each new edition and issued in German, Latin, French, Italian and Czech until 1628. It was the most widely read description of the world in the sixteenth century, illustrated with woodcut maps, town views and scenes of daily life.

Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) was a German cosmographer, cartographer and Hebrew scholar, professor at the University of Basel.

Artist or Maker: Sebastian Münster
Dimensions: Approximately 33 cm x 21 cm (13.0 in x 8.3 in)
Medium: Woodcut
Date: c. 1560-1580
SKU: Munster54704_BAG

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