A first edition of Sebastian Munster's 'Cosmographia Universalis' 1544

Sebastian Munster's Cosmographia was an immensely influential book that attempted to describe the entire world across all of human history and analyse its constituent elements of geography, history, ethnography, zoology and botany. First published in 1544 it went through thirty-five editions and was published in five languages, making it one of the most important books of the Reformation period.   Of interest to scholars of humanist culture, the Reformation and book history, this ambitious work throws into relief previously overlooked aspects of the intellectual and religious culture of the time.

Sebastian Münster was born on 20 January 1488 in Ingelheim, Germany, and died on 23 May 1552 in Basel, Switzerland. He was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and Hebrew scholar whose Cosmographia was the earliest German description of the world and a major work in the revival of geographic thought in 16th-century Europe. He taught as a professor at the University of Basel and is known as a translator of the Hebrew Bible.