Warhafftige abcontrafehtung der Herrlichen und berhümpten Statt Bisantz

Key Properties

Source: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographia, German edition, Book 2

Folios: view on fol. clxii-clxiii, signature S ij ("Bisantz")

Artist: monogram RMD in the lower right corner, for Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch

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

Technique: Woodcut, uncoloured, with two coats of arms

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

Region: Besançon and the loop of the Doubs

Condition

Good. Full double-page leaf with margins; general toning and some light marks; centre fold as issued. Two small holes in the image, in the hills at upper left and upper right. German text on the verso, showing through faintly.

Description

A bird's-eye view of Besançon, set in the tight loop of the river Doubs, with the citadel hill behind and wooded hills on either side. Streets, churches, gates and quarters are named in Latin capitals, among them the Porta Nigra, the Carmelites and the Madeleine, and two coats of arms are shown at the top.

The woodcut carries the monogram RMD of Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (1525-1571), the Bern artist who cut several of the views for the Cosmographia.

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.