| Method | Woodcut |
| Artist | Münster, Sebastian |
| Published | [Basel, 1550] |
| Dimensions | 150 x 370 mm |
| Notes |
A birds-eye view of the city of Jerusalem from Volume 5 of the first Latin edition of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia. The most famous of Jerusalem's buildings are depicted and labelled, including Mount Zion, the Citadel of David, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Golden Gate, the Temple of Solomon, and the Dome of the Rock. At the time of publication, the city was part of the Turkish empire, and thus, many of its most prominent towers, domes, and buildings, are surmounted by the Islamic crescent. The initials of the artist, Jacob Clauser, are engraved on the walls of the city, near the House of Pilate. Clauser, like Munster, had never visited Jerusalem, so this view of the city is putative rather than an accurate record of how it appeared at the time, and obviously draws much inspiration from the depictions of the destruction of ancient Jerusalem in the Nuremberg Chronicle. Below the image is an explanation in Latin of the city, as well as the nearby city of Jericho, and a depiction of one of the region's plants, either Balsam or a Rose of Jericho. The verso features a Hebrew hymn in praise of the city, as well as a description and half-page illustration of the city of Acre, also known as Ptolemais. Sebastian Münster (20th January 1488 - 26th May 1552) was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and theologian. A gifted scholar of Hebraic, Münster originally joined the Franciscans, but left the order in favour of the Lutheran Church. He was appointed to the University of Basel in 1529, and published a number of works in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. His most celebrated works are his Latin edition of Ptolemy's Geographia in 1540, and the Cosmographia in 1544. The Cosmographia was the earliest German description of the world, an ambitious work of 6 volumes published in numerous editions in German, Latin, French, Italian, and Czech. Condition: Central vertical fold as issued. Minor time toning to edges of sheet. Minor creasing to central fold. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £450.00 |
| Stock ID | 40846 |