Typvs Vniversalis

Description

Printed map. Described in Shirley, The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472-1700, entry 77, p. 87: "Munster's 'modern' map of the world is an oval projection with a vigorous surround of clouds and lusty windheads. The east and west heads are placed inside the oval circumference. It is a woodcut, like all the maps he produced, and most of the type for the lettering has been set separately in rectangular inserts. The continents are shown in rough outline only with the Americas taking on an unusual shape, florida and francisca are almost separated by a deep cleft of water and, further north, the Terra nova sive de Bacalhos is part of a huge promontary extending as far as and joining onto Scandinavia. The channel between this land mass and francisca bears the legend 'This strait leads through to the Moluccas'. It would appear that Münster's map is based on a combination of information derived from Verrazzano's explorations of 1522-24, when the waters of Chesapeake Bay were mistaken for the Indian Ocean, and reports of Cartier's voyages of 1534-35 up the St. Lawrence seaway into the Great Lakes vainly searching for the north-west passage. The west coast of North America, hypothetically drawn, carries the name Temistitan, then generally used to denote Mexico. In Africa, the course of the Nile is prominent, with its twin sources terminating in a range of mountains. Unidentified islands Grisonum and Calensuan are placed in the proximity of Australia, while for the first time on a printed map the Pacific Ocean (mare pacificum) receives its name. Münster's 1540 world map appeared in three subsequent editions of the Geographia, in 1541, 1542 and 1545. It also was used for the first four editions of his more extensive encyclopaedic work, the Cosmographia in 1544, 1545, 1546 and 1548 before the block was laid aside. A new one was cut for the next edition of the Cosmographia in 1550, the last edition of the Geographia in 1552, and for all later editions of the Cosmographia up to and including 1578. Maps from this second block can easily be recognized because the titles of the windheads are in banners and the east and west winds are now contained within the outer surround. It is also signed 'DK' - the initials of the wood engraver David Kandel - in the lower left-hand corner. A third block was used for editions of the Cosmographia from 1588 onwards."

On verso: Orbis vniversalis descriptio, in qua praeter Ptolemei alio- rum'... ueterum Cosmographorû inuestigationem, .... [text in Latin on right side of sheet, surrounded by an ornamental border]. Acquired as part of the Banks Collection.