[Bavaria, Suabia, Franconia, etc.] Schwaben und...
Sebastian Munster
[Bavaria, Suabia, Franconia, etc.] Schwaben und Baier Land /Dar bey auch begriffen werdne Schwartzwald / Otenwald und Nordgow
Basle / 1552
Fine regional map Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia and the Zurich region, from a German edition of Munster's Cosmography one of the most influential geographical works of the 16th Century.
The map is centered on the Danube, with the Rhine at the extreme right side of the map and the Alps at the top.
Sebastian Munster Biography
Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) was a cosmographer and professor of Hebrew who taught at Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Basel. He settled in the latter in 1529 and died there, of plague, in 1552. Münster made himself the center of a large network of scholars from whom he obtained geographic descriptions, maps, and directions.
As a young man, Münster joined the Franciscan order, in which he became a priest. He then studied geography at Tübingen, graduating in 1518. He moved to Basel, where he published a Hebrew grammar, one of the first books in Hebrew published in Germany. In 1521 Münster moved again, to Heidelberg, where he continued to publish Hebrew texts and the first German-produced books in Aramaic. After converting to Protestantism in 1529, he took over the chair of Hebrew at Basel, where he published his main Hebrew work, a two-volume Old Testament with a Latin translation.
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 Geographia universalis vetus et nova, an updated edition of Ptolemy's Geographia. In addition to the Ptolemaic maps, Münster added 21 modern maps. One of Münster's innovations was to include one map for each continent, a concept that would influence Ortelius and other early atlas makers. The Geographia was reprinted in 1542, 1545, and 1552.
He is best known for his Cosmographia universalis, first published in 1544 and released in at least 35 editions by 1628. It was the first German-language description of the world and contained 471 woodcuts and 26 maps over six volumes. Many of the maps were taken from the Geographia and modified over time. The Cosmographia was widely used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The text, woodcuts, and maps all influenced geographical thought for generations.
Antique Maps / Europe / Western Europe / Switzerland
Antique Maps / Europe / Germany / Germany
Regnum Borussiae Gloriosis auspicijs Serenissimi e Potentissimi Princip Friderici III. Primi Borussiae Regis March et. Elect. Brandenburg inaugartum die 18 Jan A. 1701 . . .
Fine map of Bohemia, celebrating the inauguration of Fredrick I as King of Prussia on January 1, 1713.
La Savoye . . . 1743
Detailed map showing the Savoy region of Italy and Switzerland.
Stati Di Savoia, Piemonte . . .
Fine example this striking map of Piemonte and Savoye, from Vincenzo Maria Coronelli's Corso Geographico, published in Venice.
A Generall Mapp Of The Empire of Germany. With its severall Estates . . .
A striking dark impression of Richard Blome's scarce map of the German Empire, the earliest folio sized map of the region to be engraved in England.
Hanc Ger[maniae et P]oloniae de[s ... ]em Serenissim [P]otentissimi Poloniae Regi August offert et inscribit Petrus Schenck
With Portrait of the King of Poland and Lithuania
Chorographica Tabula Lacus Lemanni Locorumque Circumiacentium Auctore Iac. G. Genevensi
Finely colored example of Jodocus Hondius' map of the Lake Geneva area, oriented to the southeast.