 produced his greatest work, the ‘Cosmographia’. It was the culmination of a lifetime’s study, in which he distilled the geographical information he had gathered over the past thirty years. Münster organises the work in a series of periegesis or geographical travels. He begins by describing the area’s geography, history, ethnography, flora and fauna, and, famously, strange peoples, fabulous plants, and wondrous events.

The work would prove to be so popular that some forty editions were published between 1544 and 1628, with the number of maps expanding from twenty-six in the 1544 to two hundred and sixty-two by 1628.



 (1489-1552). Cosmographer, humanist, theologian and linguist, Münster was famous in his own age as a Hebraist, composing a Hebrew grammar and a list of Hebrew, Latin and Greek synonyms which were used widely by 16th century humanists. A Franciscan friar from around 1506, Münster studied in Tübingen and taught in Basel and Heidelberg before leaving the order and moving to Basel in 1529, where he took up the chair in Hebrew. Whilst in Basel, Münster indulged in his other great love: that of cartography. The love affair had begun some years earlier in Tübingen, when under the tutelage of Johann Stöffler. Münster’s notebook of the time contains some forty-three manuscript maps, most of which were based upon others’ work, except, that is, for his map of the Rhine from Basel to Neuss.

Münster would produce his first map in a printed broadsheet of 1525. The map, which covers Germany, also came with an explanatory text (only extant in the second edition of 1528), which lays out Münster’s vision for a new great survey of Germany. He readily conceded that the job was too great for one man and so called upon fellow academics to cooperate and supply detailed maps and text of their respective areas, with Münster working as the great synthesiser. Although the project would never get off the ground, much of its methodology and material would be used, with great success, in his ‘Cosmographia’.

The simple, but effective model, shows the Earth at the centre of the Universe within a series of concentric circles that outline the orbit of individual planets, including the Sun, surrounded by the fixed firmament of the stars. The twining snake linking all the planetary orbits represents the Milky Way.

The decorative border shows seasonal scenes of sowing and reaping at the top; below is a caravel with a mariner on its deck using an astrolabe, while the lower right shows two woodsmen resting from their labours to eat and drink.

 (1488–1552) was a cosmographer and professor of Hebrew who taught at Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Basel. After converting to Protestantism in 1529, he took over the chair of Hebrew at the University of Basel, where he published a two-volume Old Testament in Hebrew with a Latin translation. In Basel, Münster made himself the centre of a large network of scholars from whom he obtained geographic descriptions, maps, and directions. He remained in Basel until his death in 1552. 

Münster is best known for his work ‘Cosmographia Universalis’ first published in 1544 and released in at least thirty-five editions by 1628. This woodcut, which illustrates a geocentric model of the Universe, postdates the revolutionary work of Nicolaus Copernicus’ ‘De Revolutionibus’ (1543) by forty-three years and demonstrates the initial reluctance to accept his controversial heliocentric theory.

’s ‘Cosmographia’ illustrates a geocentric model of the universe and demonstrates the general reluctance to accept Nicolaus Copernicus’ revolutionary heliocentric model of the Solar System. Following the classical template offered by Claudius Ptolemy, the Earth sits at the centre of the Universe and is composed of four concentric circles representing the four elements. Beyond this the planetary orbits (including the sun) radiate outward and terminate in the firmament of the stars. The woodcut is embellished with delightful border scenes of sowing and reaping at the top; below is a caravel with a mariner on its deck using an astrolabe, while the lower right shows two woodsmen resting from their labours to eat and drink.

’s geocentric model of the universe from a Latin edition of his epic encyclopaedia, the ‘Cosmographia’.

Single leaf, CXXIX – CXXX, Latin text, with vignette woodcut of the Universe on verso

Münster’s Geocentric Model of the Universe