Map of Transylvania, Romania

Artist or Author: Sebastian Munster

Work: Cosmographia Universalis or Cosmographey: das ist Beschreibung aller Lander [...]

Date of Publication: 1574

Style: Engraving

Paper Size: ~ 15 1/2" by 13 1/4" (Fold Out)

Condition: The work is in very good to excellent condition overall. There may be some archival repair or reinforcement at the fold. There may be some faint offset from the fold out nature of the plate. There may be a few minor imperfections to be expected with age. Please review the image carefully for condition and contact us with any questions.

Description of the work:

This very old woodcut is from Sebastian Munster's Cosmographia Universalis or Cosmographey: das ist Beschreibung aller Lander [...] The work was published in Basel in 1574 by Heinrich Petri.

The work was a massive chronicle of all the geographical knowledge of the world to that point. The work included world maps as well as views of smaller cities and woodcut illustrations of historical subjects, mythology, natural history and ethnography. It was the first work to show America in its "correct" continental form and "sealed the fate of 'America' as the name of the New World." (Burden 12)

Sebastian Munster (1489-1552) was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Hebrew scholar. He also became a Franciscan monk at an early age. Munster's Cosmographia was the first work of scientific based knowledge in the German language.