Romanae urbis situs, quem hoc Christi anno 1549 habet

Munster's view captures a fine sense of the fortified walls and Seven Hills of the Eternal City, with significant activity along the Tiber River. Many of Rome's great landmarks are clearly identifiable in this important early view. The key at the bottom locates approximately 23 landmarks.

Although engraved half a century later from the maps by Bergomensis and Schedel, the view depicts the city as it was at the end of the 15th century, drawing on the same prototype commonly indicated in the panorama of Mantua in turn taken from a still unknown panorama engraved in the workshop of Francesco Rosselli around 1485. The image was included in one of the most famous works of the '500, the Cosmographiae Universalis for the first time published in Latin in 1550 and then reprinted several times in Italian, French and German. The absence of the Colosseum - justified by the author himself by the letter G of the legend "for lack of space" - has been noted several times by critics. In addition to the Dioscuri at the Baths of Diocletian, also present in the plants of Bergomensis and Schedel, the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in its original location near San Giovanni in Laterano, from which it was moved in 1538 for the visist of Charles V in Rome and placed by Michelangelo in the Capitoline Hill, is here indicated. It is still standing the Meta Romuli although demolished in 1499 and the two "edicole" at the end of Castel Sant'Angelo, demolished after the Sack of Rome of 1527. The most recent building depicted is the Vatican Belvedere, built in 1485/87. (see Marigliani p. 118).

Plate taken from the Cosmographiae Universalis, Latin edition, Basel, half of the 16th Century.

The Cosmographiae Universalis of Sebastian Münster (1488-1552), printed for the first time in Basel in 1544 by the publisher Heinrich Petri, was updated several times and increased with new maps and urban representations in its many editions until the beginning of the next century. Münster had worked to collect information in order to obtain a work that did not disappoint expectations and, after a further publication in German embellished with 910 woodblock prints, arrived in 1550 to the final edition in Latin, illustrated by 970 woodcuts.

There were then numerous editions in different languages, including Latin, French, Italian, English and Czech. After his death in Münster (1552), Heinrich Petri first, and then his son Sebastian, continued the publication of the work. The Cosmographia universalis was one of the most popular and successful books of the 16th century, and saw as many as 24 editions in 100 years: the last German edition was published in 1628, long after the author's death. The Cosmographia contained not only the latest maps and views of all the most famous cities, but also a series of encyclopedic details related to the known, and unknown, world.

The particular commercial success of this work was due in part to the beautiful engravings (among whose authors can be mentioned Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, David Kandel).

Woodcut,  in perfect condition.

Bibliografia
A. P. Frutaz, "Le piante di Roma", XCVIII, tav. 170; C. Marigliani, "Le Piante di Roma delle collezioni private", tavv. 11/14; M. Gori Sassoli (a cura di), "Roma Veduta" p. 140, n. 6; Scaccia Scarafoni, n. 126.