Cosmographiae Universalis

'sealed the fate of 'America' as the name of the new world'

First Latin edition, and last edition to be edited by Sebastian Munster himself, of the book that cemented America's name. This work contained the first separate printed map of the Western Hemisphere and the first printed map to name the Pacific Ocean. Many of the illustrations, including the 39 town views, were new to this edition. The map of the modern world, Typus Orbis Universalis, also first appeared in this edition, replacing the Ptolemaic world map used in previous editions (cf. Shirley 77).

The cosmography of the humanist universal scholar Sebastian Munster (1488-1552) represents an attempt to provide an illustrated description of all geographical and historical knowledge about the world, with special consideration of Germany and Central Europe. While Munster never travelled much himself, he kept up over 20 years of feverish correspondence with all manner of officials and scholars across Europe in an attempt to collate the entire sum of Christian knowledge of the globe.

This completely revised, greatly expanded, and newly illustrated edition was published at the end of March 1550, followed shortly thereafter by the German version. For the first time, this edition includes the nearly full-page portrait of the author, the panoramic views of Heidelberg, Vienna, and Worms, as well as over 50 new maps, including Münster's first maps of Poland, Prussia, and Switzerland. The 14 large preliminary maps include one of the earliest maps of America.

First Latin edition; folio in 8s (33 x 22.5 cm); illustrated woodcut title H. R. Manuel, woodcut portrait to verso of title, 14 double-page woodcut maps, 39 woodcut double-page town views, one double-page woodcut of 'sea and land monsters', 75 maps and views in text as well as over 900 (partly repeated) in-text woodcut illustrations, two library stamps to verso of title, contemporary manuscript annotations to title and margins, occasional marginal staining; later marbled calf heavily restored, with most of the gilt spine laid down, all edges red, a little worn, still a very good healthily margined copy; [24], 472, [2], 475-480, [2], 481-1162, [2] pp.

VD16 M 6714; Alden-L 550/27; Brunet III, 1945; Burden 12; Burmeister 87; Graesse IV, 622; Sabin 51379.