Heading: (Maps)
Author: Münster, Sebastian
Title: Das Erst General/inhaltend die beschzeibung und den Circkeldes gantzen Erdtrichs und Moze
Place Published: [Basle]
Publisher:
Date Published: 1550-[1578]
Description:

Woodcut map, old hand-coloring. 26.4x38 cm (10¼x15").

The "new woodcut world map" (Typus Orbis Universalis) prepared for the 1550 edition of Münster's Cosmographia. Shirley 92 (plate 78) notes "The new world map is on an oval projection, similar in many respects to the previous map (entry 77), but with the woodcutter's initials `D.K.', identified as those of David Kandel, in the lower left-hand corner (obscured on this copy by the coloring). The titles of the windheads are now in banners and the east and west winds (unlike the 1540 version) do not protrude inside the oval circumference. North America still retains its unusual shape almost bisected by water but the earlier note indicating a route to the Moluccas has been omitted...." The map was first issued in the 1550 edition of Cosmographia, and appeared in subsequent editions through 1578, with the title varying according to the language of the edition. The present example has a recent pencil date of 1569 on the verso. Half of the verso is taken up with German text and woodcuts (the latter are colored).

Neat repair at centerfold with old paper on verso, piece at lower margin replaced affecting borderline; some minor soiling, very good.