Munster, Sebastian “Colmariensis ciuitatis…” [Colmar, France]

Sebastian Munster.  “Colmariensis ciuitatis…”  [Colmar, France]. 

From Cosmographia.  Cologne: Arnoldo Byrckmanno, [1540]-1575.  ca. 10 x 13 ½.  Woodcut.  Full margins.  Fine impression.   A few scattered small worm holes.  Tears in image repaired with archival tape and two small holes in map filled with period paper and in-painted.  Very good condition.  

A fine sixteenth century wood cut by Sebastian Munster.  Munster was one of the greatest cartographers in the era before the Dutch “modern” cartographers such as Mercator and Ortelius, and he produced influential maps in his editions of Ptolemy’s Geographia and Cosmographia.  Topographical detail is surprisingly copious, with data on cities, regions, mountains and rivers abundant and of considerable historic interest.  In many cases, these prints were the finest at the time, and today are some of the earliest views of European cities.