Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) - Cosmographia Universalis - Gli Unni

This original sheet 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 hosts the solemn chorographic section titled LIBER III (page 355), expressly dedicated by Münster to the description of Germany and the peoples who marked its ancient history. The Latin text opens with the incipit of the chapter De Hunorum gente crudelissima (Cap. III), offering a dense and erudite historiographical and anthropological discourse on the legendary origins and the ruthless customs of the people of the Huns. Münster draws on the reports of classical and medieval chroniclers to describe their fierce physiognomy, the ritual flogging of infants to accustom them to pain, and their deadly nomadic incursions that terrorized Christian Europe, pushing the Goths and the other barbarian peoples beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire. Of extraordinary collectible interest is the presence of ancient marginal notes printed contemporaneously (Quari Huni imberbes, Huni occupãt Pannoniam, Callimachus de Hunis) which attest to the critical apparatus of the work aimed at highlighting the most significant passages of this famous historiographical analysis. Turning the page, the back (page 356) continues the development of the historical chronicle under the heading DE GERMANIA, focusing on the figure of the commander Attila and opening the next chapter titled De Vandalis (Cap. IIII). The Latin text unfolds as a detailed military narrative of the devastating campaigns conducted by the king of the Huns in the West, stopping particularly at the death of his brother Bleda and at the memorable and bloody Battle of the Catalaunian Fields (Bellum in Catalaunicis campis), where the alliance between the Roman general Aetius and the Visigoths temporarily halted Attila's fury. The visual composition of the back is magnificently enriched by a circular woodcut portraying Attila’s face in profile (Attila rex), depicted in traditional iconography with stern, feral features, topped by a heraldic crown and accompanied by typographic marginal glosses (Mors fratris Attilae, Attilae facies germana & mores, Bellum in Catalaunicis campis). The treatise introduces the methodological motivations that guided the author in composing Cosmographia, understood as a monumental work aimed at offering rulers and scholars of the XVI century a universal guide to understanding the morals, geography, and changes of the peoples of the Earth through the ages. Dimensions 30 x 20 cm Will be shipped by courier

Estimation:€200

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