Munster, Sebastian “De terris Asiae minoris”

Sebastian Munster. “De terris Asiae minoris.”  From Cosmographia. 

Basle [1540]-1548. 9 3/8 x 6 3/8.  Woodcut.  Excellent condition.

A  sixteenth-century woodcut map of Asia Minor by Sebastian Munster (1489-1552).  Munster was one of the greatest cartographers in the era before the Dutch “modern” cartographers such as Mercator and Ortelius, and he issued many influential maps in his editions of Ptolemy’s Geographia and his own Cosmographia.  This map of Asia Minor is typical of his excellent work.  Topographical detail is surprisingly copious, with data on cities, regions, mountains and rivers abundant and of considerable historic interest.  The Cosmographia was a compendium of knowledge at the time and it is through maps such as this that many in Europe had their only access to what the nations of the world were like.