Sebastian Munster
Basle / 1579
5.5 x 3 inches
Interesting early map of France, using a stylized hill format which was popularized in maps of the 15th Century.
Munster's Cosmography was one of the most influential georgraphical works of the 16th Century. It was published in a number of editions over a half century and was continuously revised and updated to include new illustrations and updated information.
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 / France / France
[La Rochelle] Rochella Munitissimum Galliae Opp.
Fine example of this iconic antique engraved plan of 16th-century La Rochelle, which appeared in Braun & Hogenberg's 6-volume Civitates Orbis Terrarum.
[Battle of Moncontou] Victoria di chatolici contra Hugonoti
Rare plan of the Battle of Moncontou, France, by an early anonymous 'Laferi School' mapmaker.
Lotharingia Ducatus; Vulgo Lorraine
Fine old color example of Blaeu's map of the Lorraine Reigon, centered on Bayone and Nancy and including the Sar and Moselle River Valleys.
Genealogie des familles souveraines de l'Europe issues par alliances de la Maison de France . ..
Elaborate genealogical tree tracking the the relationships of many monarchs to the house of France.
(Ancient Gaul) Galliarum Descriptio ex Sansonum Tabulis editis et manuscriptis excerpta ope Anim adversionum Domni Martini Bouqeut Benedictini. . .
Fine original antique map showing the political divisions and Roman roads of ancient France, published in Paris in 1738 by Gilles Robert de Vaugondy.
Les Vignobles De France -- Vins De Roussillon Midi Provence (The Vineyards of France -- Wines of Rossillon and Provance)
Fine promotional map of the wine regions of Roussillon and Provence, drawn by Remy Heteau in 1954.