@1558 Munster hand-coloured map of Russia, Poland and Hungary

$155.00 CAD

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Woodblock map from Sebastien Munster’s Cosmographia, most likely from the 1558 German version.

Titled in German  ‘Von dem kunigreich Poland’ (The kingdom of Poland).

The map covers from the Baltic to the Black Sea with major cities located including Moscow, Gdansk, Cracow, and Grodno.

Back has another hand-coloured cartouche of Mathias, king of Hungary, Bohemia and Dalmatia.

Superb colours.

Yellowing around edges.

31.5 x 20.5 cm

 

Sebastian Münster (20 January 1488 – 26 May 1552), was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Christian Hebraist scholar. His work, the Cosmographia from 1544, was the earliest German description of the world.

It had numerous editions in different languages including Latin, French (translated by François de Belleforest), Italian, English, and 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 notable 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.

Content of the 1544–1598 editions:

Book IV - Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Walachia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Turkey

Editions of Cosmographia:

German 1544, 1546, 1548, 1550, 1553, 1556, 1558, 1561, 1564, 1567, 1569, 1572, 1574, 1578, 1588, 1592, 1598, 1614, 1628

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