Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) - Cosmographia Universalis...

This original sheet is a precious Renaissance page taken from the inner sections of the fifth book of Sebastian Münster’s Latin edition of 1550 of the Cosmographia universalis, printed in Basel by the publisher Heinrich Petri. The front of the page hosts the solemn chorographic section titled LIBER V (page 1267), expressly dedicated by Münster to the description of the New World, maritime Asia and the great oceanic routes. The Latin text unfolds under the chorographic chapter Hispani ad Moluccas perveniunt (Cap. CLXIIII), offering a dense and fascinating botanical-historiographical chronicle focused on the arrival of Spanish navigators at the mythical Islands of the Moluccas, today’s archipelago of spices. Münster describes with profound solemnity the encounter with the native populations and delves into an erudite scientific dissertation on the local exotic flora, examining in particular the collection of pearls and the characteristics of the precious plants of cloves (Garyophyllu.), of cinnamon (Cinnamomum) and of nutmeg (Muscata nux). The visual composition of the front is extraordinarily enriched by three detailed botanical woodcuts that respectively depict the branches and leaves of the clove, the cinnamon tree and the nutmeg plant with its aril, accompanied by marginal era-wide marginal glosses (Margaritae maximae, Quinque insulae Moluccae, Macis, Zingiber) aimed at highlighting the most significant passages of this fundamental Renaissance commercial treatise. Turning the page, the back (page 1268) continues the development of the historical chronicle with the header DE TERRIS ASIAE MAIORIS, introducing the chorographic chapters devoted to explorations in the New World. The Latin text unfolds under the chapters Tertia navigatio Columbi ad novas insulas (Cap. CLXV) and Petrus Alonsus novas insulas quaerit (Cap. CLXVI), offering a detailed and dramatic historiographical account of Christopher Columbus’s third transoceanic voyage undertaken in 1498 and the subsequent expeditions of Pedro Alonso Niño. Münster retraces minutely the routes to the torrid zones, the encounter with the indigenous people of Paria described in their customs and defenses and the early exchanges of pearls and gold, then dwelling on the harsh territorial tensions and on the accusations that led to the arrest of the Admiral and his brothers. The page is solemnly enriched by a fine half-figure woodcut depicting a native navigating aboard a traditional canoe within a riverine and coastal landscape, and is accompanied by typographic marginal glosses (Feri homines, Paria insula, Nutus pro sermone). The treatise closes with the author’s geopolitical notes, whose monumental work is aimed at offering scholars of the XVI century a universal guide to understand the morality, geography and the changes of the peoples of the Earth through the ages. Dimensions 30 x 20 cm Will be shipped by courier

Stima:€200

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