Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)

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Cover of first edition, printed in Basel by Heinrich Petri
Cover of first edition, printed in Basel by Heinrich Petri

The Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster (1488 – 1552) from 1544 is the earliest German description of the world. [1]

It had numerous editions in different languages including Latin, French (translated by François de Belleforest), Italian, English, and even Czech. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after his death. The Cosmographia was one of the most successful and popular books of the 16th century. It passed through 24 editions in 100 years. This success was due to the fascinating woodcuts (some by Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, and David Kandel). It was most important in reviving geography in 16th century Europe.

His first geographic works were Germania descriptio (1530) und Mappa Europae (1536). In 1540 he published a Latin edition of Ptolemy's Geographia with illustrations. The 1550 edition contains cities, portraits, and costumes. These editions, printed in Germany, are the most valued of the Cosmographias.

Contents

[edit] Content of the 1544–1598 editions

  1. Book I - Astronomy, Mathematics, Physical Geography, Cartography
  2. Book II - England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Savoy, Trier, Italy
  3. Book III - Germany, Alsace, Switzerland, Austria, Carniola, Istria, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Pomerania, Prussia, Livland
  4. Book IV - Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Walachia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey
  5. Book V - Asia Minor, Cyprus, Armenia, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Scythia, Tartary, India, Ceylon, Burma, China, East Indies, Madagascar, Zanzibar, America
  6. Book VI - Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, South Africa, East Africa

[edit] Editions of Cosmographia

  • German 1544, 1546, 1548, 1550, 1553, 1556, 1558, 1561, 1564, 1567, 1569, 1572, 1574, 1578, 1588, 1592, 1598, 1614, 1628
  • Latin 1550, 1552, 1554, 1559, 1572
  • French 1552, 1556, 1560, 1565, 1568, 1575
  • Italian 1558, 1575
  • Czech 1554

Map of Nordgau

Ingelheim

Blemmyes, a fantastic creature

Frankfurt (Main)

Frankfurt (Oder)

Map of Germany

Speyer

Skyline of Riga

[edit] In modern fiction

A copy of Münster's Cosmographia, found by chance in a London second-hand book shop in the 1920's, is at the center of Dorothy Sayers'a story "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" – a Peter Wimsey detective mystery.

Throughout the story, the book is at the center of tense chase, as it turns out to contain the clue for a hidden pirate treasure of the 18th Century. One of the maps from Münster's book is reproduced in Sayers', and it turns out to contain a vital clue for solving the mystery.

[edit] Literature

  1. ^ The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1974, ISBN 0852292902 [1]
  • 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.
  • 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: Münster, Sebastian. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Bd. 23, Leipzig 1886, S. 30–33. (German)
  • Claus Priesner: Münster, Sebastian. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Bd. 18, Berlin 1997, S. 539–541. (German)

[edit] External links

Languages