Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)
The Cosmographia ("Cosmography") from 1544 by Sebastian Münster (1488–1552) is the earliest German-language description of the world.[1]
It had numerous editions in different languages including
Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, and David Kandel). It was most important in reviving geography in 16th-century Europe. Among the notable maps within Cosmographia is the map "Tabula novarum insularum", which is credited as the first map to show the American continents as geographically discrete.[2]
Some of its editions also contain one of the earliest preserved texts in the Latvian language.[3]
His earlier geographic works were Germania descriptio (1530) and Mappa Europae (1536). In 1540, he published a Latin edition of
Geographia
with illustrations.
Contents
As late as the 1598 edition, the content consisted of:
- Book I: Astronomy, Mathematics, Physical Geography, Cartography
- Book II: England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Savoy, Trier, Italy
- Book III: Germany, Livland
- Book IV: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Walachia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Turkey
- Book V: Asia Minor, Cyprus, Armenia, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Ceylon, Burma, China, East Indies, Madagascar, Zanzibar, America
- Book VI: Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, South Africa, East Africa
Editions
- German: 1544 Basel, 1545 Basel, 1546, 1548, 1550, 1553, 1556, 1558, 1561, 1564, 1567, 1569, 1572, 1574, 1578, 1588, 1592, 1598, 1614, 1628
- Latin: 1550 Basel, 1552, 1554, 1559, 1572
- French: 1552 Basel, 1556, 1560, 1565, 1568, 1575 Paris (editor Francois de Belleforest).
- Italian: 1558 Basel, undated Venezia, 1575 Koln.
- Czech: 1554 Praha.
Excerpts only:
- German: 1820 J.G.J. Seybold, Munchen.
- French: 1779 Ruault, Paris (ed. Nicolas Gobet); 1872 Librarie des Philosophes, Paris; 1883 A. Quantin, Paris.
- English: 1552 W. Marshall, London (abridged ed.); 1553 Edward Sutton, London (ed. Richard Eden); 1561 Lahon Awdely, London (ed. George North); 1572 Thomas Marche, London (ed. Richard Eden); 1574 Thomas Marche, London (ed. Richard Eden); 1577 Richard Jugge, London (ed. Richard Eden); 1885 Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh & Birmingham (ed. Edward Arber); 1895 A. Constable & Co., Westminster (ed. Edward Arber).
Gallery
-
Map of theBavarian Nordgau
-
Ingelheim
-
Blemmye, a fantastic creature
-
Frankfurt (Main)
-
Frankfurt (Oder)
-
Map of Germany
-
Map of central and eastern Europe
-
Speyer
-
Skyline of Riga
-
Map of showing North and SouthAmerica, or the 'New World'[4]
References
- ISBN 0-85229-290-2 [1]
- ^ Lepore, Jill (2002). Encounters in the New World: A History in Documents, Pages from History. Oxford University Press. p. 24.
- ^ "The Riga Skyline - Then and Now". Latvians.com. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
- ^ Munster, Sebastian (1544). Cosmographia.
Further reading
- Karl Heinz Burmeister: Sebastian Münster - Versuch eines biographischen Gesamtbildes. Basler Beiträge zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 91, Basel und Stuttgart 1963 und 1969.
- Karl Heinz Burmeister: Sebastian Münster - Eine Bibliographie. Wiesbaden 1964.
- Matthew McLean: The Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster: Describing the World in the Reformation. Aldershot 2007.
- Hans Georg Wehrens: Freiburg in der "Cosmographia" von Sebastian Münster (1549); in Freiburg im Breisgau 1504 - 1803, Holzschnitte und Kupferstiche. Verlag Herder, Freiburg 2004, S. 34 ff. ISBN 3-451-20633-1.
- Günther Wessel: Von einem, der daheim blieb, die Welt zu entdecken - Die Cosmographia des Sebastian Münster oder Wie man sich vor 500 Jahren die Welt vorstellte. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-593-37198-7.
- Ludwig Geiger (1886), "Münster, Sebastian", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 23, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 30–33
- Claus Priesner (1997), "Münster, Sebastian", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 18, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 539–541
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster).
- Sebastian Münster in the German National Library catalogue
- "Tabula novarum insularum" [Map of America] (Sebastian Münster), at the State Library of New South Wales.
- "Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)". Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German).
- Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster) in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- Artikel in der TRE
- Lateinische Werke im Internet
- Wer war Sebastian Münster? - Umfangreiche Dokumentensammlung des Sebastian-Münster-Gymnasiums in Ingelheim.
- Sebastian Münster, La Cosmographie universelle online excerpts
- His Map of Asia (1544 AD), Tabula orientalis regionis, Asiae scilicet extremas complectens terras & regna
- Historic Cities: Sebastian Münster
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110607164651/http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/at/schreckenfuchs_1553_oratio-funebris-de-obitu-sebastiani-munsteri.pdf
- Munster Map - Simcoe County Archives