Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Münster, Sebastian, 1489-1552. Cosmographia »

Le seizieme siecle se caracterise, du point de vue de l'histoire des conceptions geographiques de la terre, par le renouvellement des representations de l'oecoumene, en relation avec les navigations de decouverte. Au sein du discours de la geographie se forme progressivement le concept d'une + terre universelle ;, un nouvel orbis terrarum qui n'est plus limite comme on l'affirmait jusqu'alors a la zone temperee de l'hemisphere nord, mais se confond desormais avec le globe terrestre considere dans sa totalite. Cette terre partout habitable, cet oecoumene ou ce sol universel de l'existence humaine, constituent desormais l'objet propre de la geographie. Comment cet objet a-t-il ete elabore ? quelles ont ete les conditions de possibilite de la formation du nouveau concept de la terre ? comment, et en fonction de quelles initiatives intellectuelles, a-t-il ete forge ? au sein de quels + lieux ; et selon quelles modalites du savoir geographique ce concept et cet objet se sont-ils progressivement incames ? ce travail analyse les modalites selon lesquelles la cartographie, la cosmographie descriptive, ainsi que les diverses formes de theatralisation de la representation geographique de la surface de la terre, ont pris en charge la formation de ce nouvel objet et le developpement de ce nouveau concept au cours du seizieme siecle.

The sixteenth century was a time in which knowledge about the world grew exponentially in both its material content and the enthusiasm with which works treating of it were received. One of the most popular, long-lived and influential books of the kind was Sebastian Munster's Cosmographia, printed from 1544 to 1628, in 35 editions and five languages. The Cosmographia attempted nothing less than a geography of the whole known world, an encyclopaedia of its contents and a history of all its peoples. Based upon a close reading of the Latin 1550 edition of the Cosmographia. and supported by Munster's correspondence and other primary texts, this study examines several aspects of Munster's great work. A biographical chapter describes his Hebrew scholarship, the ethos of his humanist community and their influence upon his cosmography. The genre of cosmography, its ancient origins and development, are traced in the following chapter, as too are the alternative formulations favoured by his contemporaries. An account of the means by which Munster assembled the information for his book is next constructed, attending especially to his own empirical surveys and his creation of a learned network of those willing to do likewise. This chapter also surveys the printing, editions and reception of the Cosmographia. The final two chapters examine the contents and values of the book. They describe the organisation of the material and Munster's treatment of geography, history, ethnography, zoology and of prodigies of nature. The understanding of the world which emerges is analysed, addressing tolerance, identity, the high esteem of learning, and the reconciliation of faith with a burgeoning science. Also examined is Munster's concept of providence, which admonished the reader with the lessons of the fallen civilisations described in his Cosmographia, designed as a book of the world, an ark for its knowledge, and a Wunderkammer for its glories.

Defence date: 28 September 2015
Examining Board: Professor Martin van Gelderen (EUI/Lichtenberg-Kolleg, University of Göttingen); Professor Thomas Kaufmann (University of Göttingen); Professor Antonella Romano (EUI/ EHESS); Professor Markku Peltonen (University of Helsinki).
Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia was printed in Basel, in the Swiss Confederation, for the first time in 1544. It was a richly illustrated combination of mathematical geography and descriptive history-writing. Moving from country to country, Münster offered his reader an extensive display of peoples and lands of the whole world. The global scope and coherent structure of his book secured a lasting popularity and made it an emblem of cosmography's new status and universal ambition. Münster's work marked an important turning point in the history of the modern geography, though scholars have time and again reminded readers of the religious (often taken as unmodern) aspects of the book. This study seeks to understand Münster's unique combination of geography and religion by looking at his work within the context of the Protestant Reformation and seeks to demonstrate how Sebastian Münster's geographical thought was influenced by the new ideas of the rising evangelical natural philosophy. The Last decades have witnessed a growing awareness of the importance of Luther's co-reformer and humanist Philip Melanchthon's work in shaping a Protestant approach to the study of nature in the mid- Sixteenth century. Although Melanchthon's influence on Münster has been speculated upon, traditional views have often considered the boundary between Reformed and Lutheran communities intellectually unbridgeable. Focusing on the agency of Münster's close collaborator, humanist Simon Grynaeus, this study seeks to demonstrate that Melanchthon's intellectual impact went beyond the Lutheran circles. Despite religious disputes, exchange of ideas on geography, mathematics and natural philosophy was taking place between Wittenberg and Basel. Accordingly, the development of Melanchthon's natural philosophy may be re-assessed as a broader evangelical debate on nature. Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia can be seen as a contribution to this debate. This study pays also particular attention to the illustrations of the Cosmographia. Although scholars have been aware of a significant descriptive impulse in the northern renaissance art, only very recently has this phenomenon been connected with Protestant theology. This study aims at raising the question of whether the new theological currents endorsing minute recording of natural appearances could be seen as a key factor behind the emerging descriptivism in the Sixteenth Century images of nature.

Cette thèse propose l'analyse des processus de l'intégration discursive des « Nouveaux Mondes » – c'est-à-dire des nouveaux lieux de l'expansion européenne des XVe et XVIe siècles – dans les imprimés français d'avant 1560. Le corpus s'y veut exhaustif, mais l'étude porte en priorité sur (1) les mentions brèves (dites sublimées), que celles-ci relèvent de la digression ou qu'elles soient intégrées, et (2) les textes actualisés, c’est-à-dire les traductions, les rééditions avec annexes, les adaptations, etc. Une division bipartite et heuristique est proposée, avec d'une part les actualisations d'écrits procédant par l'exclusion d'un ou d'élément(s) de l'hypotexte (c'est-à-dire du matériel textuel qui préexiste à l'acte de publication), et d'autre part par l'adjonction d'éléments supplémentaires. Cette division permet d'analyser les dits lieux, d'une part en fonction d'un principe de pertinence (lequel est révélé par les phénomènes d'exclusion), et d'autre part en fonction d'une recherche de l'inédit, voire de l'acte contentieux (qu'exprime éloquemment l'acte d'adjonction). La thèse démontre comment les deux principes, celui de la pertinence et celui de la recherche de l'inédit, sont liés à la culture émergente de l'imprimé, ainsi qu'au développement d'une grande variété de genres et de discours: littérature géographique, chroniques annales, pamphlets ou manuels anti-syphilitiques, lettres missionnaires, littérature eschatologique, traités didactiques, etc. Le concept d'acte de publication, qui est corrélatif à celui d'actualisation, permet d'aller au-delà d'une opposition entre l'ouvrage dit « périmé » et l'ouvrage dit « progressiste ». Pour ce faire est reconsidéré l'apport, pour la diffusion des nouveaux lieux, de textes comme le Tractatus de sphaera de Joannes de Sacrobosco (XIIIe siècle) et la lettre apocryphe du Prêtre Jean (XIIe siècle), qui aux XVe et XVIe siècles sont réactualisés suivant une perspective heuristique ou didactique, et participent ainsi à l'émergence d'une économie discursive des « Nouveaux Mondes ».