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Münster's Cosmography

The famous, richly illustrated Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster in one of its most comprehensive German editions.

“Cosmographey: das ist, Beschreibung aller Länder, Herrschafften vnd fürnemesten Stetten des gantzen Erdbodens…“

Basel, Sebastian Henricpetri, 1598

We are offering a well-preserved exemplar of the German edition of 1598 of the Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster. The impressive volume contains 28 double-page woodcut maps, 64 double-page town views as well as more than 1000 woodcuts within the text.

The present edition is one of the most comprehensive ones of the famous cosmography which was first published in 1544. Until 1628 there were 45 further editions published in German, Latin, French, Italian, English and Czech.

The 26 double-page woodcut maps at the beginning include 2 splendid world maps as well as depictions of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Eastern and Northern Europe, Germany, France, Italy, England, Spain, Greece , Syria / Palestine, Holy Land, Indonesia, Swabia with Bavaria, Franconia, Silesia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Dalmatia as well as 3 maps of the course of the Rhine. In the main part of the volume there are moreover double-page maps of Pomerania and Swabia as well as a double-page depiction of sea creatures.

The 2 folded, 4-page views are showing Heidelberg and Vienna.

Among the contained double-page woodcut views there are depictions of Jerusalem, Constantinople, Cairo, Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, London, Basle, Geneva, Augsburg, Erfurt, Frankfurt a. d. O., Koblenz, Cologne, Lübeck, Strasbourg, Ulm and others.

On Münster’s
Cosmography

After the Bible, the Cosmographia of Münster was the most widely read book of the 16th century in Germany. The monumental work combines information on history and geography, astronomy and natural sciences as well as cultural studies and folklore. With his cosmography Münster published the first scientific but generally understandable description of the world in German language. The preparation of it took him about 20 years.

The first suggestion to the production of the work was made in 1524 by the humanist Beatus Rhenanus. Soon after that Münster started the preparations for his book which was at first planned only as regional treatise on the upper Rhine area. However, the Münster’s concept soon extends to much more extensive work dealing with the whole world.

Münster, who has never left Europe, gains his information even on the most remote places of the world out of chronicles and travelogues by seafarers, adventurers, conquistadors as well as out of the works by cartographers, and Greek or Latin classics.

From these sources he also took over some highly quaint and dubious details like reports on beings living in India without mouth nourishing themselves only by scents or creatures with only one but oversized foot which was also useful to provide shade from the sun if required. Münster also narrates of humans with a dog’s head or such without head with their face at the chest.

Read today, these “facts” may seem ridiculous. However, they were part of the image of the world at that time and they are also part of the aim which the author had intended for his cosmography: Münster once mentioned to have actually written his work for the ensuing ages, “to let people in 300 or 400 years know how we are seeing the world today.”

Sebastian Münster

Sebastian Münster (* 20. January 1488 in Nieder-Ingelheim; † 26. May 1552 in Basel) , was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Hebrew scholar.

In 1505, aged 17, Münster became a Franciscan monk, even being ordained some years later.
His universal studies at several universities qualify Münster as polymath.
At first he studied grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Later he devoted himself to theology and took lessons in geography, cosmography and Hebrew.

Initially, Münster earns his money by his knowledge of the Hebrew language. He published several dictionaries, and in 1524 he became professor of Hebrew at the university of Heidelberg. Besides his teaching, Münster starts to prepare the cosmography at the same year which would keep him busy fort he rest of his life.

Printer / Publisher

Sebastian Henricpetri (* 1546 in Basel; † 1627 in Basel) was a famous printer of the dynasty of Petri, son of Heinrich Petri (the stepson of Sebastian Münster) and brother of Adam Henricpetri as well as Sixtus Henricpetri.
From 1572 he was leading the printing house for more than 50 years. He published hundreds of Latin and German titles: historiographic works, new editions of elder titles, schoolbooks, theological papers and updated new editions of Münster’s “Cosmographia”. Due to the hardships of the Thirty Years’ War, Henricpetri went into insolvency and had to close his printing house one year before his death, on March 24 th of 1626.