Basel, (1540) 1572

The Classical Island of Taprobana:    Sumatra ein grosse Insel so von den alten Geographen Taprobana ift genennt worden.

Original woodblock printed map
Uncolored as issued
250 x 340 mm (with title above map)
Map # M-24
$ Sold

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This double page map was first issued in Sebastian Munster's 1540 Geographia, as Tabula Asiae XII, and later in his Cosmographia.  The map was unchanged from 1540 to 1578, other than language changes.  This particular map comes from a German edition of Munster's Cosmographia, of 1572.  The Cosmographia was initially published in German in 1544 and then on a regular basis up to 1578 in various languages.

Sebastian Munster (1489-1552) was one of the three great cartographers who dominated the sixteenth century, along with Mercator and Ortelius, "and of these three, Munster probably had the widest influence in spreading geographical knowledge throughout Europe in the middle years of the century" (Moreland & Bannister, p.78). "[Munster's] Cosmographia... contained not only the latest maps and views of many well-known cities, but included an encyclopedic amount of detail about the known - and unknown - world and undoubtedly must have been one of the most widely read books of its time.

References:   Karrow, Robert W. Jr. Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and Their Maps. Chicago: Speculum Orbis Press, 1993.  No. 58/100, p. 423.   Moreland, Carl, and David Bannister. Antique Maps. 2nd. ed. Oxford: Phaidon-Christie's, 1986.

Very Fine Condition.  Minor stitch hole from the binding process at upper margin, at centerfold only.  A strong impression.