America — Sebastian Münster, 1588
Coming 11/11
- Cartographer
- Sebastian Münster
- Date
- 1588
- Publication
- Cosmographia · Basel, Sebastian Petri, 1588
- Subject
- The Americas
- Medium
- Woodcut with original hand colour
- Dimensions
- 30.5 × 36 cm (woodcut); 35.5 × 41.5 cm (paper)
- Condition
- Very good; original hand colour
- Reference
- Burden 67
- Original title
- Americae sive Novi Orbis, Nova Descriptio
About this piece
Americae sive Novi Orbis, Nova Descriptio is the woodcut of the Americas introduced by Sebastian Petri in the 1588 German edition of Münster’s Cosmographia. Based on the cartography of Abraham Ortelius, it brings an Antwerp atlas image into a Basel book, translating the coastline, lettering and ornament into woodcut.
South America has the conspicuous westward bulge that marks the Ortelian design. Farther north, names such as Quivira and Anian show how reported places and conjectural geography shared the same sheet. At the southern edge, the Strait of Magellan divides the continent from the vast southern land labelled Meridies Terra de Fuego. Two oval panels of German text sit above the map, and the verso also carries German letterpress.
This impression retains its original hand colouring. The paper is in very good condition. The woodcut measures 30.5 × 36 cm on a 35.5 × 41.5 cm sheet. Recorded in Philip D. Burden’s cartobibliography as no. 67.