Die Statt Colmar contrafehtet nach aller jrer gelegenheit, sampt umbligender Landschafft

Key Properties

Source: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographia, German edition, Book 3 (Das Dritte Buch, Von dem Teütschen land)

Folios: view on fol. dcxxxiiii-dcxxxv, signature PP ij

Verso: German text on Colmar and a large decorative title "Die Statt Colmar"

Size: sheet c. 40 x 30 cm (folio leaf)

Technique: Woodcut, uncoloured

Edition: not established; the view appeared in several German editions

Region: Colmar and the surrounding Alsace villages

Condition

Good. Strong impression on a full double-page leaf with wide margins. General toning, stronger in the margins; centre fold as issued; a tear in the lower left margin, not reaching the image. German letterpress text on the verso, showing through faintly.

Description

A detailed bird's-eye view of the walled city of Colmar, seen with its churches, gates and the surrounding landscape. Around the town the woodcutter has named the neighbouring villages, among them Türckheim, Ingersheim, Horburg, Herlisheim and Marbach, so the sheet works as a small regional map of central Alsace as well as a town portrait.

The dedication text on the verso states that the view was sent to Münster by the council of Colmar, made after their own drawing, through the city's chief magistrate Hieronymus Boner. Münster collected many of his town views in this way, from the cities themselves.

Historical Significance

Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia (first edition Basel 1544) was the most widely read description of the world in sixteenth-century Germany and went through some forty editions. The large double-page town views, added from 1550 onwards, are among the earliest printed portraits of many European cities.