Egypt – Tabula Aphricae III ; S. Münster – 1542

Description

Decorative Ptolemaic map of Egypt and the region from the Libyan Sea to the Red Sea, including Babylon, Thebes, Anorum, Alexandria, Memphis, the Pillars of Hercules and other classical sites. The Nile has its source in Aetheopia Sub Aegypto. A man is attacked by a sea monster.  The map was first issued in 1540, in editions after 1542 a combination of small printer’s devices was added in the title. It is complicated to determine the exact edition of a map from Geographia. The maps can be distinguished by the Title, printer’s marks, the condition of the image and the text and numbering on the verso. This map from the second edition of 1542 can be recognized by its title and printers’ marks.

Decoratieve Ptolemaïsche kaart van Egypte en de regio van de Libische Zee tot de Rode Zee, inclusief Babylon, Thebe, Anorum, Alexandrië, Memphis, de Zuilen van Hercules en andere klassieke locaties. De Nijl heeft zijn oorsprong in Aetheopia Sub Aegypto. Een man wordt door een zeemonster aangevallen. Het is ingewikkeld om de exacte editie van een kaart uit Geographia te bepalen. De kaarten zijn te onderscheiden door de titel, drukkersmerken, de staat van de afbeelding en de tekst en nummering op de verso. Deze kaart uit de tweede editie van 1542 is te herkennen aan de titel en drukkersmerken.

Details

• Type: cartographic print
• Title: Tabula Aphricae III
• Publication: 1542
• Technique: woodcut
• Carthographer: Claudius Ptolemy / Sebastian Münster (adjustments)
• Illustrator: Sebastian Münster
• Publiced in: Geographia Universalis, Vetus et Nova, Complectens Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini Enarrationis (..) by Henri Petri in Basel
• Size print: 25.6 x 34.0 cm
• Size paper: 30.3 x 40.2 cm
• Verso: Latin text, pg. 15
• ID: M3080W
• Source: Nordenskiöld Early history of carthography [IX34], Hantzsch [XLII], Ruland Imago Mundi [R20], Karrow 58/87

Condition: B

Good, given age. Centerfold as issued with sufficient margins. Nice clear print. General age-related discoloration and/or occasional minor handling defects, with an occasional stain. Thin paper around centerfold.

Goed, gezien de leeftijd. Middenvouw zoals uitgegeven met voldoende marges. Mooie heldere afdruk. Algemene leeftijdsgebonden verkleuring en/of incidentele kleine defecten door hantering, met een enkel vlekje. Dun papier rond de middenvouw.

Sebastian Münster (1488 – 1552)

Sebastian Münster was a German cartographer, cosmographer and professor. He was born in Niederingelheim, as a farmer’s son. In 1505 Münster became a Franciscan monk and studied philosophy and theology at the university of the order in Heidelberg. In 1507 he continued his education in Löwen, where he studied mathematics, geography and astronomy. After a transfer to Freiburg, he also began to study Hebrew, which he continued after entering the St. Katharina monastery in Rouffach/Alsace in 1509 to study under Konrad Pellikan, the important German humanist. Beyond theology, Pellikan was a teacher of Hebrew, Greek, mathematics and cosmography and Münster became interested in these subjects. In 1511, when Pellikan moved to Pforzheim, Münster duly followed him. In 1512 Sebastian Münster was ordained as a priest in Pforzheim. From 1514 to 1518 he taught as a lecturer of philosophy and theology at the university of his order in Tübingen and conducted astronomical-mathematical and geographical studies.

After Münster moved to Basel in 1518, he published his first text, a survey of Hebrew grammar Epitome Hebraicae Grammaticae, which was one of the first-ever language books on Hebrew published in Germany. From 1521 to 1529 Münster worked and taught in Heidelberg, published numerous Hebrew texts and wrote the first books written in Aramaic ever to be published in Germany. His permanent cosmographical interest is reflected by his lectures at the university and his published map of Germany in 1525, as well as his treatise on sundials in Erklerung des newen Instrument der Sunnen in 1528.

Being a Franciscan monk, he subsequently became a friend of Martin Luther and in 1529 Sebastian Münster converted to the reformation and took over the chair of Hebrew at the University of Basel, where reformation had just been established. A little later he married Ana Selber, the widow of his book printer. Münster’s stepson Heinrich Petri from then on published most of his books. In 1534-1535 Sebastian Münster finally published his main work in Hebrew, which met with international acclaim: a two-volume edition of the Old Testament “Biblia Hebraica” with a Latin translation and annotations.

In 1536, Münster was the first to make a map of Europe on one sheet. Moreover, it is oriented to the south, a novelty following Waldseemüller and Ertzlaub. These mapmakers were able to improve the common Ptolemy maps and shape the new world. From 1540 to 1552 Münster published the Geographia with Ptolemy maps and a number of modern maps. From 1544 Münster published the Cosmographia with maps and extensive descriptions of the world. The impact of this innovative book was so great that we can consider Münster as one of the most important scientists in our history.

In the May of 1552, Münster died of plague in Basle and was buried in there, but his works remained influential in the period of the next generation of great modern map makers. After the death of Heinnrich Petri in 1579, his son Sebastian Henric Petri continued publishing.

Sebastian Münster was een beroemde Duitse carthograaf en cosmograaf. In 1505 werd Münster Franciscaner monnik, vanaf 1509 als leerling van Konrad Pelikan. Münster voltooide zijn studie aan de Universiteit van Tübingen in 1518. Nadat Münster in 1518 naar Bazel was verhuisd publiceerde hij zijn eerste tekst Epitome Hebraicae Grammaticae. Dit werk was één van de eerste taalboeken over Hebreeuws die in Duitsland werd gepubliceerd. Van 1521 tot 1529 werkte en doceerde Münster in Heidelberg. Hij publiceerde er talrijke Hebreeuwse teksten, in 1531 Horologiographia (uurwerken en zonnewijzers) en in 1536 Organum Uranicum (bewegingen der planeten).

In 1536 maakte Münster als eerste een kaart van Europa op één blad. Bovendien op het zuiden georiënteerd, een noviteit in navolging van Waldseemüller en Ertzlaub. Deze kaartenmakers waren in staat om de gangbare Ptolemeus kaarten te verbeteren en de nieuwe wereld vorm te geven. Vanaf 1540 tot 1552 publiceerde Münster de Geographia met Ptolemeus kaarten en een aantal moderne kaarten. Vanaf 1544 publiceerde Münster de Cosmographia met kaarten én uitgebreide beschrijvingen van de wereld. De impact van dit vernieuwende boek was zo groot, dat wij Münster mogen beschouwen als één van de belangrijkste wetenschappers van onze geschiedenis.

In mei 1552 stierf Münster aan de pest in Bazel en werd daar begraven. Zijn werken bleven invloedrijk in de periode van de volgende generatie ‘moderne’ kaartenmakers. Na de dood van Heinnrich Petri in 1579 naam zijn zoon Sebastian Henric Petri de uitgeverij over.

Geographia / Cosmographia

In 1540 Sebastian Münster published his Geographia Universalis. The Geographia was a new and important edition of Ptolemy, a landmark work that, in addition to the Ptolemaic maps, contained several of the most significant modern maps (Tabula Nova) in the history of cartography. The Cosmographia of 1544 was the earliest description of the world in the German-language and was the most important and famous cosmography of the Renaissance. The Cosmographia contained more than 600 pages. It was made in the tradition of Martin Waldseemüller’s Geographia, who was the first to publish the Ptolemy’s maps with a section of modern maps in 1510. In its first intent Münster’s project was the correction of erroneous cartographical data through uniformly conducted empirical research. Yet, as he travelled, measuring and mapping over years, the idea evolved. Münster’s knowledge increased, he amassed ever-more and more varied information, and his understanding of the value of geography to man deepened. The cartographical fruits of his work became increasingly conjoined with the history of the places shown, and those places and their histories were increasingly shown in relation of the whole: the geographical and historical ‘big picture’ (McLean, 2007)

It had numerous editions in different languages including Latin, French, Italian, English, and even Czech. 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 woodcuts (some by Hans Holbein the Younger, 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. The first editions from 1544 to 1548 bear the Latin title Cosmographia, the editions from 1550 to 1614 the German title Cosmographei oder beschreibung aller länder, herrschafften, fürnemsten stetten, geschichten, gebreüchen, hantierungen (…) oder Cosmographey. The editions from 1615 to 1628 are again entitled Cosmographia. The last German edition was published in 1628, containing more than 1800 pages.

In 1540 publiceerde Sebastian Münster zijn Geographia Universalis. De Geographia was een nieuwe en belangrijke editie van Ptolemaeus, een mijlpaalwerk dat naast de Ptolemaïsche kaarten, verschillende van de meest significante moderne kaarten (Tabula Nova) in de geschiedenis van de cartografie bevatte. De Cosmographia uit 1544 was de eerste samenhangede beschrijving van de geschiedenis van de wereld en haar continenten in een boek van 600 pagina’s. De Cosmographia was één van de succesvolste en belangrijkste uitgaven van de renaissance. Het werk is in meer dan 24 edities en in diverse talen talen uitgegeven. Het succes van de Cosmographia komt mede door de schoonheid van de houtsnedes, gemaakt door beroemdheden als Hans Holbein de Jongere, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch en David Kandel. De aanzichten en kaarten in de Cospographia zijn gebaseerd op Schedel en Waldseemüller. Maar Münster verdiepte de kennis, creëerde nieuwe beelden en schiep een groeiend werk. In iedere nieuwe editie voegde hij de laatste informatie toe. Er zijn in alle drukken vanaf 1550 een aantal Nederlandse en Belgische provincies, stadsplattegronden en aanzichten opgenomen: Holland, Brabant, Vlaanderen, Friesland, Amsterdam (1550), Utrecht (1572), Antwerpen, Leuven, Brugge, Gent, Haarlem, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Groningen (1574), Leiden (1614).

Ptolemy’s Geographia in Renaissance Europe

Claudius Ptolemy (Egypt: ca. 100-170 AD) was an ancient geographer, astronomer, and mathematician. He was the first to use longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. This idea of a global coordinates system was highly influential, and we use a similar system today. He is known today through translations and transcriptions of his work, but little is known about his life besides his residence in Alexandria.

Several of his works are still known today, although they have passed through several alterations and languages over the centuries. The Almagest, in thirteen books, discusses astronomy. It is in the Almagest that Ptolemy postulates his geocentric universe. His geometric ideas are contained in the Analemma, and his optical ideas were presented in five books known as the Optica.

His geographic and cartographic work was immensely influential. In the Planisphaerium, Ptolemy discusses the stereographic projection. Perhaps his best-known work is his Geographia, in eight books. However, Ptolemy’s ideas had been absent from western European intellectual history for roughly a thousand years, although Arab scholars interacted with his ideas from the ninth century onward.

In 1295, a Greek monk found a copy of Geographia in Constantinople; the emperor ordered a copy made and the Greek text began to circulate in eastern Europe. In 1393, a Byzantine diplomat brought a copy of the Geographia to Italy, where it was translated into Latin in 1406 and called the Cosmographia. The manuscript maps were first recorded in 1415. These manuscripts, of which there are over eighty extant today, are the descendants of Ptolemy’s work and a now-lost atlas consisting of a world map and 26 regional maps.

When Ptolemy’s work was re-introduced to Western scholarship, it proved radically influential for the understanding and appearance of maps. Ptolemy employs the concept of a graticule, uses latitude and longitude, and orients his maps to the north—concepts we take for granted today. The Geographia’s text is concerned with three main issues with regard to geography: the size and shape of the earth; map projection, i.e. how to represent the world’s curve proportionally on a plane surface; and the corruption of spatial data as it transfers from source to source. The text also contains instructions as to how to map the world on a globe or a plane surface, complete with the only set of geographic coordinates (8000 toponyms, 6400 with coordinates) to survive from the classical world.