Münster Cosmographia World Map, 1569

The story of this map

Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia was the sixteenth century’s great illustrated book of the world, printed again and again in Basel for decades after his death in 1552. This is the world map from a German edition of 1569, published by his stepson Sebastian Henricpetri, with the block cut by David Kandel. It is a woodcut, not an engraving, and that gives it a bolder, more graphic line than the Dutch copperplates of the following century.

The world sits in an oval, and around the oval the border is alive with puffing wind-heads and rolling cloud, the classical way of showing the winds that drove ships across the oceans. The continents are drawn with the confidence of a scholar and the gaps of an age still exploring: a chunky Americas, a rough Asia, a great deal of guesswork in the south. The Gothic German title above it is part of the charm.

Because it is a book map, it is intimate rather than grand. That makes it a favourite for a desk wall, a landing, a small kitchen nook or a gift for someone who loves old books as much as old maps. We keep the sizes modest so the woodcut looks as it should.

It is the earliest map in our Antique World Maps collection and sits naturally beside the Ortelius oval and the Carta Marina. Each print is made to order on archival matte paper and framed in the country of delivery.

Before and after

Left: the archive scan exactly as published. Right: the file that goes to the printer.

Archive scanRestored

Restoration notes

Restoration plan: crop scan margins, balance colour cast and levels while keeping the paper tone, remove library stamps and scanner artefacts if present, gentle sharpening. No repainting of original content.

Every print carries its archive credit on the packing slip. Paper tone and small imperfections of the original are kept on purpose; nothing is redrawn.