Sebastian Münster
Back to people overviewSebastian Münster was an extraordinary German cosmographer, humanist, theologian, and University professor.
In 1506, he became a Franciscan friar, however by 1529 he had left the church to take up a position at the University of Basel. This is where Münster indulged in his great love of cosmography.
He produced a 1540 edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’. In 1544, Münster published his greatest work, the ‘Cosmographia’, a text which aimed to describe the world. Books were dedicated to the description and mapping of different regions of the globe. It was the culmination of a lifetime’s study, gathered over 30 years. The ‘Cosmographia’ proved to be exceedingly popular and revived German interest in cosmography, with 40 editions being published between 1544 and 1628.
