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TABULA GERMANIAE
Antique Maps

TABULA GERMANIAE

Sebastian Münster · Basel · Heinrich Petri · probably 1540

Sebastian Münster, Ptolemaic woodcut of Germania

FM-0011
€ 425
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Key Properties

Edition: From the Geographia / Cosmographia

Language: Latin / German

Collation & Technical Description

Woodcut. Image approx. 27 × 33 cm; frame approx. 52 × 61.5 cm. A Renaissance interpretation of Central Europe in the classical tradition of Ptolemy; framed, verso not inspectable.

Condition

The photograph shows foxing, light discolouration and some cockling. The sheet is framed and the verso cannot be inspected.

References & Bibliography

Ptolemaic woodcut of Germania from S. Münster's Geographia / Cosmographia, Basel (issued c. 1540–1571).

Description

An early woodcut map of Germania in the classical geographical tradition of Ptolemy. The sheet shows not modern Germany in the strict sense, but a Renaissance interpretation of Central Europe.

The auction description dates the sheet to around 1550. The same woodcut, however, was also used later, including in editions of the 1560s and 1571. Without inspection of the verso the precise edition remains uncertain.

Its age and the recognisable name of Münster make the sheet of interest.

Notable features: Early Renaissance woodcut; Ptolemaic geography of Germania; Authentic sixteenth-century character.

Historical Significance

A Ptolemaic woodcut of Central Europe representing the sixteenth-century revival of classical geography in printed atlases.

Provenance

Not established.