Description
hand-coloured wood engraving; A very important Map for the Philippines from the ‘ Cosmographia’ (German edition) by Sebastian Münster (1488-1552).
It is the first map of a German cartographer to identify a Philippine island: Puloan [Palawan]. His ‘Cosmographia’ contained not only the latest maps & views, but also included an encyclopaedic amount of detail about the known – and unknown – world. It was undoubtedly one of the most widely read books of its time, going through nearly 40 editions in 6 languages, and as a result, probably had the widest influence in spreading geographical knowledge throughout Europe An eminent German mathematician & linguist, Münster became Professor of Hebrew at Heidelberg & later at Basel, where he settled in 1529. He was the first to provide a separate map of each of the 4 known Continents & the first separately printed map of ‘England. He created 2 major works, the ‘Geographia’ & the ‘Cosmographia’. He died of the plague in 1552. The map shows a classic and important 16th century outline of the Asian continent. Much of the information on the map is derived from the reports of Marco Polo, including Cathay, Quinzay, and the famous 7448 islands supposed to represent the present-day Philippines. The map also shows much of the Portuguese influence in Southeast Asia in the early 16th century, including the settlement of Malacca and the emergent outline of a number of the Spice Islands. Decorative detail includes a large whale-like fish and twin-tailed mermaid in the lower section of the map.
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