Münster’s map places the Earth at the centre of the Universe within a series of concentric circles that outline the orbit of individual planets, including the Sun, surrounded by the fixed firmament of the stars. A twining snake representing the Milky Way links all the planetary orbits.

The Sunderland Collection

This woodcut from a 1586 edition of Sebastian Münster’s ‘Cosmographia’ illustrates a geocentric model of the universe and demonstrates the general reluctance to accept Nicolaus Copernicus’s revolutionary heliocentric model of the Solar System. Following the Classical template offered by Claudius Ptolemy, the Earth sits at the centre of the Universe and is composed of four concentric circles representing the four elements. Beyond this, the planetary orbits - including the Sun - radiate outward and terminate in the firmament of the stars. The woodcut is embellished with delightful border scenes of sowing and reaping at the top; below is a caravel with a mariner on its deck using an astrolabe, while the lower right shows two woodsmen resting from their labours to eat and drink.

Münster is best known for his work ‘Cosmographia Universalis’ which was first published in 1544. It was released in at least thirty-five editions by 1628. This woodcut, which illustrates a geocentric model of the Universe, postdates the fundamental work of Nicolaus Copernicus and more specifically his astronomical treatise printed in ‘De Revolutionibus’ (1543) by forty-three years. This demonstrates the initial reluctance to accept his controversial heliocentric theory.

Sebastian Münster’s geocentric model of the universe from a posthumous Latin edition of his epic encyclopaedia, the ‘Cosmographia’.

Münster’s Geocentric Model of the Universe