1552 – S. Munster – Les Monstres Marins
2,800 €
Title: “Les monstres marins & terrestres, lesquelz on trouve en beaucoup de lieux es parties septentrionales”
(The sea and land monsters found in many places in the northern regions)
Description:
This is one of the most famous images of the Renaissance: a sea crowded with monsters, from Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia. This example comes from the first French edition, La Cosmographie universelle, published in Basel by Heinrich Petri in 1552, the year Münster died.
The creatures come from the Carta Marina of 1539 by the Swedish churchman Olaus Magnus, the first detailed map of Scandinavia. On it he filled the northern seas with the beasts that sailors and fishermen reported. Münster gathered them into a single picture, and Ortelius later borrowed them for his famous map of Iceland in 1587.
Each beast carries a letter that is explained in the book’s text. Among them:
- A: sailors throw barrels overboard and blow a trumpet to drive off a whale as big as an island.
- C: a giant sea serpent coils around a ship and seizes a sailor.
- M: a monstrous lobster grabs a swimmer.
- K: the sea pig, reported in 1537.
- T: the sea cow, half bull and half fish.
- I: in the lower left, the tree whose fruit was believed to turn into birds as it fell into the water.
- Along the top: a reindeer pulls a sledge and a hunter spears a giant snake.
The woodcut is signed with the monogram of the Swiss artist Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (HRMD), lower right, and the block cutter’s monogram “MF” with a cutter’s knife, lower left.
On the back is the opening of the chapter, “La Table des monstres marins & des bestes merveilleuses”. It explains that the letters on the beasts refer to their descriptions in the text. The facing page has the beginning of Münster’s dedication to Ferdinand, King of the Romans and future emperor.
Sebastian Münster (1488–1552), Hebrew scholar and cosmographer in Basel, published the Cosmographia in German in 1544. It was the most popular geography of the 16th century and appeared in dozens of editions in several languages. This woodcut first appeared in the enlarged editions of 1550.
Author: Sebastian Munster (1488 – 1552)
Artist: Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (1525–1571)
Sheet size: 41,3 x 33,0 cm
Year: 1552
Technique: woodcut
Condition:
Good, original condition, with no restorations or cleaning. Uncoloured, with a strong, dark impression. Centrefold as issued. Light toning, and minor wear to the edges and corners of the margins.
This is an original antique woodcut published in 1552 and NOT a modern copy or reprint
On your request I will provide a Certificate of Authenticity
In stock
