 |
*title
page from the 1558 Italian edition*; *closer
view*; *picture of Munster*
*title
page from the 1598 German edition*
*title
page of the first book, from the German edition of 1600*; *a
detail*
*title
page
of
Book
V, German edition of 1600*
*title
page from the last edition, 1628*
~~~~~~~~~~~
Sebastian Münster (1488-1552)
was a German
cartographer, cosmographer, and Hebrew scholar whose Cosmographia
(1544; "Cosmography") was the earliest German description of the world
and a major work in the revival of geographic thought in 16th-century
Europe.
Altogether, about 40 editions of the Cosmographia appeared
between
1544 and 1628; Münster was a major influence on his subject for
over
200 years.
Münster acquired the
material
for his book in three ways. He used all available literary sources. He
tried to obtain original manuscript material for description of the
countryside
and of villages and towns. Finally, he obtained further material on his
travels (primarily in south-west Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace). Cosmographia
not only contained the latest maps and views of many well-known cities,
but also included an encyclopaedic amount of detail about the known --
and unknown -- world, and was undoubtedly one of the most widely read
books
of its time.
Aside from the well-known maps
present in
the Cosmographia, the text is thickly sprinkled with vigorous
views:
portraits of kings and princes, costumes and occupations, habits and
customs,
flora and fauna, monsters, wonders, and horrors.
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