Sebastian Münster - Cosmographia - 1590

Leaf with two beautiful hand-coloured woodcuts by Sebastian Münster, one depicting a sculpture of Hercules (the genitals of the statue are covered with ink due to the modesty standards of the time) and the other " the brazen bull" also known as the bull of Phalaris. It was a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece whereby a fire was set beneath it, heating the metal to the extent that the person within slowly roasted to death.

These very old woodcuts were published in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographey: das ist, Beschreibung Aller Länder" in Basel, Henricpetri, circa 1590.

The work was a vast chronicle of all geographical knowledge of the world up to that time. It contained world maps, as well as views of cities, and woodcuts of historical subjects, mythology, natural history, and ethnography.

Münster was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and Hebrew scholar. He also became a Franciscan monk at a young age. Münster's Cosmographia was the first scientific work in the German language.

Dimensions: 33,4 x 19,8 cm
Good condition, small restoration in white upper margin. The genitals of the Hercules statue are covered with ink due to the modesty standards of the time.