Vilnam esse metropolim Lithuaniæ

The German monk Sebastian Münster (1488–1552), who was a cartographer, cosmographer and scholar, published the earliest description of the world in the German language in his Cosmographia in Basel. It was the 16th century’s most popular book. After its first appearance in 1544, more than 24 editions in other European languages were published over the next 100 years. This success was thanks to the fascinating woodcuts by famous Renaissance artists, such as Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf and Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch. One of the chapters in the 1552 edition of Cosmographia Universalis, entitled ‘De Polonia. De quibufdam Lithuaniae…’, contains a description of Vilnius. The artist of the woodcut is unknown, and he probably never saw Vilnius, but he based his work on a description of it, depicting the city at the confluence of two rivers, surrounded by a wall with huge gates. It is a conventional townscape, an unrealistic view; but it is important as one of the earliest views of Vilnius in art history made from a written description.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album LITUANIA IN ATLANTIBUS (2011). Text author Algimantas Muzikevičius, VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: "Vilnius Time", 5 June 2023 – 1 May 2024, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curators Ieva Burbaitė and Emilija Vanagaitė.

The German monk Sebastian Münster (1488–1552), who was a cartographer, cosmographer and scholar, published the earliest description of the world in the German language in his Cosmographia in Basel. It was the 16th century’s most popular book. After its first appearance in 1544, more than 24 editions in other European languages were published over the next 100 years. This success was thanks to the fascinating woodcuts by famous Renaissance artists, such as Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf and Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch. One of the chapters in the 1552 edition of Cosmographia Universalis, entitled ‘De Polonia. De quibufdam Lithuaniae…’, contains a description of Vilnius. The artist of the woodcut is unknown, and he probably never saw Vilnius, but he based his work on a description of it, depicting the city at the confluence of two rivers, surrounded by a wall with huge gates. It is a conventional townscape, an unrealistic view; but it is important as one of the earliest views of Vilnius in art history made from a written description.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album LITUANIA IN ATLANTIBUS (2011). Text author Algimantas Muzikevičius, VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: "Vilnius Time", 5 June 2023 – 1 May 2024, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curators Ieva Burbaitė and Emilija Vanagaitė.