1550 Münster Map of the World

This is Sebastian Münster's 1550 map of the world, one of the most distinctive maps produced during the Age of Discovery. In the mid-16th century, it was the best generally available summation of the rapidly expanding known world. The map was included in Münster’s magnum opus, Cosmographia Universalis, which for over 40 years was the go-to volume for the literate European seeking knowledge of the world. Consequently, this map had a disproportionate impact, providing a broad audience their first image of the post-Magellanic world. It was not challenged until the 1570 publication of Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. As important as its geographical revelations were, the map is also rich in the imagery of its era: it is bordered with billowing clouds and wind-heads marking the cardinal directions, puffing their breezes over the waters. The oceans are prowled by eight sea monsters and a sailing ship is shown crossing the Pacific and proudly firing its cannons.

An Impressive Array of Firsts

Along with Münster's map of America, this is the first map to name the Pacific Ocean and the Straits of Magellan. It ranks among the earliest acquirable maps to show and name Japan (Zipangri, here just off the American coast.). In conjunction with Munster's concurrently-published map of Asia, this is the first map to show Asia in a form shorn of Ptolemaic elements: there is no 'Dragon's Tail' or other element retained from Ptolemy's land bridge connecting Africa and China, and it is the first generally acquirable world map to hint at the existence of the East Indies. As distinct from the Ptolemaic maps of the late 15th and early 16th century, the island 'Taprobana' is shown not as Sri Lanka, but as Sumatra.

Africa

Likewise, this is one of the earliest acquirable world maps to show the continent of Africa in recognizable form. Madagascar appears in roughly the correct location. Oddly, Zanzibar appears as an island much farther out from land than is accurate - perhaps underscoring its rising significance. Africa's interior nonetheless retains the Ptolemaic geography for the course of the Nile, and its sources in the Mountains of the Moon.

A Circumnavigable Globe

More to the point, this is the first generally accessible world map to show an entirely circumnavigable globe. This map presents a world fully accessible to mariners, via the Straits of Magellan, the optimistically-sized Pacific Ocean, and the unobstructed Indian Ocean. This notion would have been new to Münster's readers, even thirty years after Magellan sailed.

Speculative Geography in America

There being vast gaps in European scholars’ knowledge of the Americas, Münster and any other geographers of his era had to fill in with speculation - leading to a wealth of unusual features. The wedge-like bay bisecting North America was derived from interpretations of Verrazano’s observations during his 1524 voyage. This so-called 'Sea of Verrazano' would also appear on Münster’s map of America. The northern parts of the world betray gaps in European knowledge: the part of Europe associated with Scandinavia extends far to the west, absorbing Greenland. In North America, the Florida peninsula is just recognizable, although the entire region west of Verrazano's Sea is identified as 'Terra Florida.' The northeastern coast is marked only with an island named 'Corterati', probably a reference to Newfoundland after the Corte Reals. The Caribbean is represented by the two principal islands of Cuba and Hispaniola.

Adding to the Cosmographia

From its first printings in 1544, Münster's Cosmographia was notable for maps and views depicting their subjects for the first time in print. In subsequent editions, Münster labored to build the work by ordering improved city views and additional decorative woodcuts. 1550 saw the addition of many maps and views to the body of the work. In the case of the present map, Münster had artist David Kandel dispense with some of the text of the 1540 world map, while adding decorative engraving: a sailing ship and eight sea monsters (the 1540 had only two!) Also, Kandel's woodcut improved on the composition of the original by having all twelve wind-heads placed in the cloud border around the map (the artist for the 1540 had run out of room, so the east and west winds appeared within the oval of the map itself.) Münster's spur to improve the images in Cosmographia was the 1548 publication of Johannes Stumpf's magnificently illustrated history of Switzerland, whose woodcut maps and views outstripped those in Cosmographia both in quality and number. Münster knew he had to improve, and commissioned many of the woodcuts that would make his work so popular.

Publication History and Census

The first iteration of this map appeared in Münster’s 1540 edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, appearing in all but the 1552 editions of that work as well as the first, German editions of Münster's Cosmographia. In 1550, the woodblock for the map was re-cut by formschneider David Kandel (his monogram DK appears in the lower left.) This second block appeared first in the German edition of 1550 and remained in use until 1578. The subsequent editions of Cosmographia employed entirely new woodcuts, based on the then-state-of-the-art maps of Ortelius. This specific example corresponds typographically to 1550 German edition of the book. Despite map and Cosmographia being otherwise well represented in institutional collections in their various editions; we see no examples of this first issue of the 1550 listed separately in OCLC.