1572 / 1614 Münster / Petri View of the city of Besançon, France

This lively and remarkably accurate woodcut bird's eye view of Besançon, France, is the earliest acquirable printed image of that city.

First Image of Besançon

Although it first appeared in a 1572 Latin edition of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia, the woodcut was executed far earlier. It bears the monogram of formschneider Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch (1525 - 1571). Many of Deutsch's woodcuts were first included in the 1550 editions of Münster's work, and the present image is consistent stylistically. And yet, this panorama made its debut long after Deutsch's other works, a year after his death, and long after Münster's death by plague in 1552. An additional formschneider's mark appears as well, that of the so-called 'monogrammist C-S' whose work appeared in Münster's work at the same time as did that of Deutsch.

A Distinctive City

Oriented to the south-southeast, the view presents the French city nestled within an oxbow of the Doubs river, between the hills of Brégille and Chaudanne. In addition to the natural protection of the river, the city was protected with a medieval wall; its southern extent can be seen cresting the hills in the background; the sides of the city are walled within the oxbow, while the northern precinct of the city and its wall extend beyond the river. The gates in the wall are named - as indeed is the Roman triumphal arch in the middle of the city, the Porte Noire (here named in Latin, Porta Negra). The city's churches are depicted and named as well, including the old Eglise Sainte-Madeleine, not the current structure (built in the 18th century) but an earlier church.

The view is surmounted by the two coats of arms. To the left are the arms of the city of Besançon, granted in 1535 by Emperor Charles V, showing the imperial eagle between two columns the Roman arch that can still be seen in the city - and which is pictured in the view itself. To the right are the arms of the Duchy of Burgundy, to which Besançon belonged.

Puzzling out the Source

The extreme accuracy of this view dictates that Münster's source was well-familiar with the place, and we know that was among the cities that he was interested in including in Cosmographia. According to McClean in his The Cosmographia of Sebastian Munster, Besançon was among the cities that Münster was working on as early as 1550. But as late as 1552, Münster could only provide a cursory description of the city curtailed with the complaint, 'I have nothing else to write here about this city, since nothing has been sent to my frequent solicitation.' So it would have been as early as 1552 that this present woodcut and its attendant description was being produced, but very likely no earlier. It may well have been in response to Münster's published complaint that this view was (finally) provided him.

But who provided the drawing that informed this superb view? We have few clues. The 1575 Braun and Hogenberg view of Besançon, which was copied from Münster's, we have seen attributed to the Burgundian humanist and geographer Jean Matal, (1517 - 1597) who certainly could have produced this view - but we have been unable to form any more concrete connection.

Adding to the Cosmographia

From its first printings in 1544, Münster's Cosmographia was notable for maps and views depicting their subjects for the first time in print. In subsequent editions, Münster labored to build the work by ordering improved city views and additional decorative woodcuts. 1550 saw the addition of many maps and views to the body of the work. Münster's spur to do so was the 1548 publication of Johannes Stumpf's magnificently illustrated history of Switzerland, whose woodcut maps and views outstripped those in Cosmographia both in quality and number. Münster knew he had to improve, and commissioned many of the woodcuts that would make his work the most popular. As is evidenced by the present work, he was still laboring at this when the plague took him.

Publication History and Census

This woodcut was executed by the Swiss artist Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch, who produced many of Munster's woodcuts, including his famous panoply of monsters. It would have been drawn and cut prior to Deutsch's 1571 death and may have been executed as early as those Deutsch produced for Münster for inclusion in the 1550 edition of Cosmographia. We do not see it in print until the 1572 Latin edition of the book; it was at that point, after the death of his widow, at which the bulk of the material Münster had received too late for inclusion in his 1552 editions was finally incorporated. The present example conforms typographically to the 1614 German-text edition of Cosmographey. Four separate examples are listed in OCLC, but the work appears on the market from time to time.