Sebastian Münster (20 January 1488 – 26 May 1552) was a German

cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

and cosmographer. He also was a Christian Hebraist scholar who taught as a professor at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

. His well-known work, the highly accurate world map, '' Cosmographia'', sold well and went through 24 editions. Its influence was widely spread by a production of woodcuts created of it by a variety of artists.

Life

He was born in

Ingelheim Ingelheim (), officially Ingelheim am Rhein (), is a town in the Mainz-Bingen Districts of Germany, district in the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany. The town sprawls along the Rhine's left bank. It has been Mainz-Bingen's district seat sin ...

, near

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, the son of Andreas Münster. His parents and other ancestors were farmers. In 1505, he entered the

Franciscan order The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

. Four years later, he entered a monastery where he became a student of Konrad Pelikan for five years. Münster completed his studies at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

in 1518. His graduate adviser was

Johannes Stöffler Johannes Stöffler (also ''Stöfler, Stoffler, Stoeffler''; 10 December 1452 – 16 February 1531) was a German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, priest, maker of astronomical instruments and professor at the University of Tübingen. Life Jo ...

Munster Tabula Novarum Insularum 1540 UTA

He left the Franciscans for the

Lutheran Church Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

in order to accept an appointment at the

Reformed Church Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

-dominated

in 1529. He had long harboured an interest in

Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, and during the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt () was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising befor ...

, as a monk, he had been repeatedly attacked. A professor of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, and a disciple of Elias Levita, he edited the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

translation and a large number of annotations. He was the first German to produce an edition of the Hebrew Bible. He published more than one Hebrew grammar, and was the first to prepare a ''Grammatica Chaldaica'' (Basel, 1527). His lexicographical labours included a ''Dictionarium Chaldaicum'' (1527), and a ''Dictionarium trilingue'' for Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in 1530. He released a ''Mappa Europae'' (map of Europe) in 1536. In 1537, he published a Rabbinical translation of the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew which he had obtained from Spanish ''

Converso A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert" (), was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants. To safeguard the Old Christian popula ...

s''. In 1540 he published a Latin edition of

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

's ''

Geographia The ''Geography'' (, , "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, compiling the geographical knowledge of the 2nd-century Roman Empire. Originally wri ...

'' with illustrations. The 1550 edition contains cities, portraits, and costumes. These editions, printed in Germany, are the most valued of this work. Other writings that followed are ''Horologiographia'' (a treatise on dialling – constructing

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

s, Basel, 1531), and ''Organum Uranicum'' (a treatise on the planetary motions, 1536). Back side of map Novae lnsulae XXVI Nova Tabula

His '' Cosmographia'' of 1544 was the earliest description of the world in the

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

. It had numerous editions in different languages including

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, French,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, English, and even

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

. The ''Cosmographia'' was one of the most successful and popular works of the 16th century. It passed through 24 editions in 100 years. This success was due to the fascinating

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

s (some by

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; ; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He ...

, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, and David Kandel), in addition to including the first to introduce "separate maps for each of the four continents known then – America, Africa, Asia and Europe."National Library Board of Singapore. ''Visualising Space: Maps of Singapore and the Region. Collections from the National Library and National Archives of Singapore'', 2014, p. 42 It was most important in reviving geography in 16th-century Europe. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after his death. Münster was also known as translator of the Hebrew Bible (''Hebraica Biblia''). His edition was published in two volumes (1546) in Basel. Th
first volume
contains the books from Genesis to 2 Kings, following the order of the Masoretic codices. Th
second volume
contains The Prophets (Major and Minor), The Psalms, Job, Proverb, Daniel, Chronicles, and the Five Scrolls (The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther). He died at

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

of the plague in 1552. Münster's tombstone describes him as the

Ezra Ezra ( fl. fifth or fourth century BCE) is the main character of the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible, he was an important Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen'') in the early Second Temple period. In the Greek Septuagint, t ...

and the

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

of the

German people Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

Selected works

* ''Grammatica Chaldaica,'' (1527) * ''Dictionarium trilingue'' for Latin, Greek, and Hebrew (1530) * ''de astrologia Chaldaeorum'', A treatise on Babylonian astronomy (1537) * ''

'' '','' Latin edition of Ptolemy's ''Geography,'' which ''Münster'' edited and supplemented with his own commentaries.The ''Tabulae'' maps that were used to accompany it provided some of the most accurate depictions of the world at the time.(1540) * '' Cosmographia'' Münster's most famous work and a detailed description of the world (1544) * ''Hebraica Biblia'' (1546) * ''Rudimenta Mathematica'' (1551)''.''

Gallery

Several paintings with oil on canvas, woodcuts and copper etchings depict Sebastian Münster, by Hans Holbein d. J. (Basel, ), Willem de Haen (1615), as rector of the

(by

Christoph Amberger Christoph Amberger (c. 1505 – 1562) was a painter of Augsburg in the sixteenth century, a disciple of Hans Holbein the Younger, Hans Holbein, his principal work being the history of Joseph in twelve pictures. Life His father was a stonema ...

, um 1547), and on the 100- DM-bill as used from 1962 to 1991. File:Remigius-Muenster.jpg, Statue of Sebastian Münster in front of St. Remigius Church,

File:Cosmographia titelblatt der erstausgabe.JPG, Cover of first edition of '' Cosmographia'' File:Saal-Ingelheim-Cosmographia-1628.jpg, His home town Ingelheim in ''Cosmographia'' File:Porträt Sebastian Münsters in der Cosmographia von 1628 .JPG, Portrait of Sebastian Münster, edition of 1628 File:Europe As A Queen Sebastian Munster 1570.jpg, '' Europa regina'' in Münster's "'' Cosmographia''", 1570. File:Sebastian Münster, Biblia Hebraica.jpg, Sebastian Münster, Biblia Hebraica: Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible printed by Heinrich Petri and Michael Isengrin, 1546, Basel, in the collection of the

Jewish Museum of Switzerland The Jewish Museum of Switzerland in Basel provides an overview of the religious and everyday history of the Jews in Basel and Switzerland using objects of ritual, art and everyday culture from Middle Ages, the Middle Ages to the present. Hist ...

. File:Polonia Et Ungaria XX Nova Tabula.jpg, A 1552 map showing the Pinsk Marshes (''Sarmatica palus'') next to

Pinsk Pinsk (; , ; ; ; ) is a city in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Pinsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is located in the historical region of Polesia, at the confluence of t ...

References

External links

* * *
Lateinische Werke im Internet

��Umfangreiche Dokumentensammlung des Sebastian-Münster-Gymnasiums in Ingelheim

* ttp://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/mapmakers/munster.html ''Historic Cities: Sebastian Münster''
Schreckenfuchs 1553 Oratio Funebris de Obitu Ssebastiani Munsteri
()
Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
��High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Sebastian Munster in JPEG and TIFF formats
"The Strange Career of the ''Biblia Rabbinica'' Among Christian Hebraists, 1517–1620"

The Munster Map - Simcoe County Archives

Maps by Munster
Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, the

National Library of Israel The National Library of Israel (NLI; ; ), formerly Jewish National and University Library (JNUL; ), is the library dedicated to collecting the cultural treasures of Israel and of Judaism, Jewish Cultural heritage, heritage. The library holds more ...

Digitized high-resolution images of the 1540 first edition of the ''Geographia Universalis''
��from RareMaps.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Munster, Sebastian 1488 births 1552 deaths 16th-century cartographers 16th-century German translators Christian Hebraists German cartographers Pictorial map artists Cosmographers

Life

Selected works

Gallery

References

Further reading

External links