Catalog Archive
Auction 159, Lot 583

"Das Heylig Judisch Land mit Ausztheilung der Zwolff Geschlechter", Munster, Sebastian

Subject: Holy Land

Period: 1572 (circa)

Publication: Cosmographia oder Beschreibung Aller Lander…

Color: Black & White

Size:
13.6 x 10.1 inches
34.5 x 25.7 cm
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Sebastian Munster (1489 - 1552) was one of the three most renowned cartographers of the sixteenth century, along with Mercator and Ortelius. Munster's Geographia and Cosmographia Universalis were two of the most widely read and influential books of the period. His editions of Ptolemy's Geographia, published between 1540 and 1552, were illustrated with 48 woodcut maps, the standard 27 Ptolemaic maps supplemented by 21 new maps. These new maps included a separate map of each of the known continents and marked the development of regional cartography in Central Europe. The antique geography was a prelude to Munster's major work, the Cosmographia, which was published in nearly 30 editions in six languages between 1544 and 1578 and then was revised and reissued by Sebastian Petri from 1588 to 1628. The Cosmographia was a geographical as well as historical and ethnographic description of the world. It contained the maps from the Geographia plus additional regional maps and city views with nearly 500 illustrations which made it one of the most popular pictorial encyclopedias of the sixteen century.

Munster based this map of the Holy Land on maps by Mercator and Ziegler and filled it with numerous woodcut vignettes. The unusual orientation of the map places west at the top with the coastline running southwest to northeast. The shoreline is remarkably accurate for the period, covering from Sidon and the land of the Phoenicians in the north, to Gaza in the south. The last nine encampments of the wandering Israelites during the Exodus are shown along with the tribal divisions. The cartouche contains an index of place names that appear on the map with each boldfaced entry followed in italics by the alternative names by which the site was known.

References: Laor #526; Mickwitz & Miekkavaara #158-22.

Condition: B+

There are some light stains, faint show-through of text on verso, and short centerfold separations at top and bottom that have been closed with archival materials. Remnants of hinge tape on verso.

Estimate: $200 - $240

Sold for: $100

Closed on 9/14/2016

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