Claudyan's map of Bohemia in Münster's Cosmography : With examples from the Map Collections of the Faculty of Science, Charles University
Abstract
The article focuses on the evaluation of the oldest cartographical heritage depicting the Bohemian kingdom. In 1518 in Nuremberg the first separate map of Bohemia, whose ideological author is considered Nicholas Claudianus, was published.
On his religious mission he met Erasmus of Rotterdam, who later worked in Basel. Sebastian Münster was German renaissance scholar working in Basel who, among other things, published commented Ptolemy's Geography.
Since 1544 he, with Heinrich Petri, published the Cosmography, encyclopedy describing the world of the day. Problems with separate editions of Cosmography are clearly presented through table of authors and their interpretations of the number of editions in respective years.
After a German edition, Latin, French, Czech and Italian translation followed. The Cosmography was richly illustrated and complemented by map supplements.
The author focuses on maps of the Bohemian kingdom in Cosmography. She divides them into three cathegories: large double-page Claudianus's -type foretext-maps, small maps with text of Claudianus's type and large double-page Criginger-type foretext-maps.
Maps preserved in the Map collection of Faculty of Science of Charles University are content and formally analyzed and texts on the reverse side of different language versions are compared and evaluated. The differences between map, editions and versions are described.
The map of Bohemian kingdom in Czech edition by Jan Kosořský of Kosoř from Czech Cosmography (1554) takes completely unique position. Unlike all other versions, which are very similar to each other, this one underwent the most changes.
The copy contains a double-page twice folded map of Bohemia, bordered by the coats of arm of Bohemian nobility. A new and bohemicanized contain was made, complemented by note about the spring and the flow of Elbe river.
During the research a unique piece with Czech description of map signs was found. Since 1588 new editions by Sebastian Petri with maps copying the work of Abraham Ortelius were published.
The map of Criginger's type was also analyzed to clear the differences from Claudianus's adaptations. In conclusion facsimile of a map from 1898, made in accordance with an artwork from Cosmography translated by Zikmund of Puchov, is introduced and analyzed.
The article is supplemented with detailed bibliographic list of analyzed maps with note apparatus and complete transcripts of the original texts in national languages.