Sebastian Münster

Sebastian Münster (born Jan. 20, 1488, Ingelheim, electorate of Mainz [Germany]—died May 23, 1552, Basel, Switz.) was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and Hebrew scholar whose Cosmographia (1544; “Cosmography”) was the earliest German description of the world and a major work in the revival of geographic thought in 16th-century Europe.

Appointed professor of Hebrew at the University of Basel in 1527, Münster edited the Hebrew Bible, 2 vol. (1534–35), which was accompanied by a literal Latin translation and a number of annotations. In 1540 he published a Latin edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia, illustrated with 27 woodcut maps after Ptolemy and 21 of Münster’s own design. Of about 40 editions of the Cosmographia printed in Germany, the 1550 edition, containing portraits, city views, and costume illustrations, is the most valued. His other works include Dictionarium trilingue (1530; “Trilingual Dictionary”), in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and Mappa Europae (1536; “Map of Europe”).