Name: Münster's Universal Cosmography
Author: Sebastian Münster

The Sunderland Collection

The number of maps expanded from twenty-six in the 1544 edition, to 262 maps by 1628.

The 'Cosmographia' contains two world maps: the 'Typus Orbis Universalis', a 'modern' map redesigned for the 1550 edition onwards and the 'Altera Generalis Tab. Secondum Ptol', a map of classical geography based on the work of Claudius Ptolemy. 

Münster’s 'modern' world map is presented on an oval projection with a broad border of clouds and windheads. Created by the engraver David Kandel, it replaced a previous version of this map from the 1544 edition. The title runs across the top of the map outside the neat-line, and the titles of the windheads are now in banners. North America is oddly shaped, almost dissected by water, but the earlier note indicating a route to the Moluccas (or the Maluku Islands in Indonesia) has been omitted.

The 'Cosmographia' includes nine maps of Europe: a complete description titled ‘Moderna Europae Descriptio', with Europe projected ‘upside down’ (south at the top of the map); and eight regional maps showing Spain ('Hispaniae Regionis Nova Descriptio'), France ('Galliae Regionis Nova Descriptio'), Germany ('Germaniae Nationis Descriptio'), Switzerland ('Helvetiae Moderna Descriptio'), Swabia and Bavaria ('Sveviae et Bavariae Descriptio'), Bohemia ('Bohemiae Description Iuxta Insigniores Cius Civitates & Oppida'), Poland and Hungry ('Poloniae et Ungariae Nova Description'), and Greece ('Nova Graecia'). These 'modern' maps were repurposed from Münster’s 1540 translation of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’.  

The ‘Cosmographia’ also includes three maps of the other continents: Asia ('Tabula Orientalis Regionis, Asia'), Africa ('Totius Africae Tabula'), and America ('Tabula Novarum Insularum'). South America is labelled as ‘America’, effectively cementing the term in the minds of Europeans as the name of the continent. The Portuguese flag is shown flying over the South Atlantic and the Spanish one over the Caribbean signifying territorial claims. The Straits of Magellan ('Fretum Mageliani') are named, as is ‘Mare Pacificum’ to name the Pacific Ocean. Ferdinand Magellan’s ship 'Victoria' - the sole survivor of five vessels during the circumnavigation between 1519-1522 - appears in the middle of this ocean. Marco Polo’s influence can be seen with the depiction of Japan (‘Zipangri’) as well as the ‘Archipelagus 7448 Insularu’, a mass of Islands that Polo mentions in the South Pacific. The Yucatan Peninsula is still shown as an island and the lake at Tenochtitlan is depicted emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.

North America is not shown as accurately as the southern half of the continent. To a large extent, it had been neglected by European explorers and therefore remained a mystery to cartographers. The only place names occurring here are 'C. Britonum', marking England’s early explorations, 'Corterati', probably Newfoundland after Gaspar and João Vaz Corte Reals, and 'Terra Florida' over the south-eastern portion of the continent. 

The 'Cosmographia' is the most famous work of Sebastian Münster, a hugely influential cosmographer and mapmaker. Münster was also well-known for his radical new edition of Claudius Ptolemy's 'Geographia', which contained twenty-one exciting new 'modern' maps.

This edition of the 'Cosmographia' is in remarkably fine condition. It contains both of Münster's famous world maps, along with continental maps of America, Asia, and Africa, nine maps of Europe, three folding panoramas, thirty-eight double-page city views, eight full-page city views and over 1,000 woodcut illustrations and diagrams. This edition also features Münster's legendary drawing of sea and land monsters.

The imagery was created by an illustrious roster of artists who included Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch and David Kandel.

Münster published his first known map, a map of Germany, in 1525. Three years later, he released a treatise on sundials. In 1540, he published an updated edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s 'Geographia'. In addition to the Ptolemaic maps, Münster added twenty-one 'modern' maps that would influence cartographers such as Abraham Ortelius to become the creators of early atlases.

Münster is best known however for this work, the 'Cosmographia Universalis', which was first published in 1544 and released in at least thirty-five editions by 1628, with vernacular translations in English, French, German, Italian, and Czech. He was assisted by more than 120 collaborators, including artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, and David Kandel.

World map as an oval

World map using Ptolemy's second projection

Modern map of Europe

New map of Spain 

Map of Gaul, France Ptolemy map #2 of Europe

Ptolemaic map #4 of Europe, Germany

Map of Switzerland

Map of the European regions inhabited by the Swedes and the Bavarians

Bohemia next to town and cities

Poland and Hungary 

Greece

Map of Asia

Map of Africa

Map of the New World , the Americas

Frontispiece

Metal workers

Unknown city view

Lutetia France, city view

Geneva 

Gaul map 

Rome city view

Venice city view

Amphitheatre in Verona

Florence city view

Map of the Neapolitan region

Map of Sardinia

Map of Sicily 

Frontispiece 

Valère Basilica, Switzerland 

Lake Geneva

The first treaty of Germany

Deurne, Belgium

Solothurn, city view

Bern, city view

Map of Auentico

Baden, city view

Basel, map

Silver mines of Lehenlahn

Silver workers

Factory, of mixing, of melting silver

Langbroek, Netherlands city view

Colmar, France city view

Sélestat, France

Offenburg, Germany, city view

Landoia, Imperial City, city view

Speyer, Germany, city view

Bormacia, Netherlands, city view

Map of Eyfalia, West Germany

Koblenz, Germany, city view

Cologne, Germany, city view

Lindau, Germany, city view

Freiberg, Germny, city view

Nördlingen, Germany, city view

Augsburg, Germany

Florence, Italy

Fridingen, Germany, city view

Unknown city in Germany, city view

Frankfurt, Germany, city view 

Map of Pannonia, Austria 

Vienna, Austria, city view

City views in Austria

Lüneburg, Germany, city view

List of the Princes of the most important Germany cities

Illustration of marine and terrestrial animals 

Map of Hungary and Transylvania 

City view of Constantinople

Asia Minor, or the Caucasus and part of Russia.

Map of Gaul

Dürer's rhinoceros 

A very rare example of the fourth and best Latin edition, in superb condition throughout.

A Universal Cosmography

Cosmographiae Universalis

Münster's Universal Cosmography

VI Books, in which are Described, According to the Tradition of Historians of Certain Faith, the Habitable Sites of all Parts of the World...and a History of all Remarkable Acts Up Until this Year 1559.

Lib. VI in Quibus Iuxta Certerioris Fidei Scriptorum Traditionem Describuntur, Omnium Habitablis Orbis Partium Situs...Atque Memorabilium in hunc Usque Annum 1559 Hestarum Rerum Historia.