One of the Great Atlases of its Age In a Superb Cardinal’s Binding

Atlas/ Early Illustration.

MUNSTER, Sebastian.

[Basel, 1552]

Cosmographiae universalis Lib. VI in quibus, iuxta certioris fidei scriptorum traditionem describuntur, . . . Autore Sebst. Munstero. Basel, Heinrich Petri, 1552. [Colophon:] Basileae Apud Henrichum Petri, . . . M.D. LII.

Small folio [12 ¼ x 8 inches], (12) ff. including title, half-page woodcut portrait of Munster, dedicatory preface and index, 14 double-page atlas maps (28 ff.) including two world maps, 1163 pp. including 34 double-page, 3 folding three-page woodcut maps and city-plans, and c. 970 smaller woodcuts in text, (1) p. printer’s device. Bound in 17th-century calf, spine in seven decorative compartments, covers and spine richly tooled in gold in a diamond pattern of fleur de lis, front and back covers stamped with the ecclesiastical arms of a cardinal. Some wear and expert restoration at extremities of binding. Text ruled in red. Top edge of t-p slightly cropped, bottom remargined; repair to top margin of pp.220-221 affecting headline and partially obscuring first line of text on p. 222. Light toning & foxing, but generally excellent condition.

An outstanding example of one of the great atlases of the 16th century. The Cosmographiae “taught nearly three generations of laymen most of what they knew about the world beyond their native places” (Strauss). It was also one of the most copiously illustrated, early books, containing over 1000 woodcuts. Among its many folding and double-page maps are the first separate, printed maps of the Western Hemisphere and of Asia as well as very early continental maps of Africa and Europe. It contains two world maps and a full complement of regional maps, both Ptolemaic and “modern.”
The volume also includes scores of city plans and views, which were prepared especially for this work, some by prominent artists of the day. “They were based on first-hand information gathered from the local officials of each town or place described, and were some of the earliest large-scale plans of cities to be published… It has been said that the Cosmography of Sebastian Munster ‘will remain an important source for the history of civilization of the period’” (The World Encompassed 272). Other woodcuts in this compendium of knowledge illustrate industries and mechanical devices of the day. There are also portraits of several notable figures.
The present edition was the most complete published during Munster’s lifetime; he died the year of its publication. Munster’s wide-ranging learning made him ideally suited to produce such a compendious work. In addition to his mastery of geography, cartography and astronomy, he was also a linguist, Hebraist and theologian. He carried on a correspondence with leading scholars of many nations, from whom he received maps and information on the various areas described in this work.

* R. W. Karrow, Jr. Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century, pp. 410-34; Burmeister 88; G. Strauss, A Sixteenth-century Enclyclopedia: Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography and its Editions, p. 159.

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