Sebastian Münster - Cosmographey: das ist, Beschreibung Aller Länder - 1590

Beautiful original 16th-century coloured woodcut leaf from Cosmographia, c. 1590 showing people crowded inside a fortified building and a battle between mounted soldiers.

An attractive original leaf from a late 16th-century German edition of Sebastian Münster’s celebrated Cosmographia, printed in Basel circa 1590.

The work was a massive chronicle of all the geographical knowledge of the world to that point. The work included world maps as well as views of smaller cities and woodcut illustrations of historical subjects, mythology, natural history and ethnography.

Munster was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Hebrew scholar. He also became a Franciscan monk at an early age. Munster's Cosmographia was the first work of scientific based knowledge in the German language.

Dimensions: 35,5 x 22,5 cm.

Good condition, a few small spots due to age.