Bohemiae nova descriptio tabula

Title

Bohemiae nova descriptio tabula

Map shows the whole of Bohemia with its sites, rivers, mountains and forests in the Czech Republic.

ca. 1540

Artist

Ptolemy/Münster Sebastian (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a prominent Renaissance cosmographer. His Cosmographia, published in 1544 with 24 double-page maps based on research from around 1528, was continuously expanded. It was the first widely accessible scientific description of the world in German, combining knowledge from history, geography, astronomy, and natural sciences. The work remained popular for a long time and was published in many editions and languages until 1650. Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100–160 AD) was a Greek mathematician, geographer, and astronomer. His works on astronomy, geography, and astrology were long considered standard references. He described the Earth as the center of the universe (Centrum Mundi) and established the basis for latitude measurement. His Geographia included the known world and the hypothesis of Terra Australis. Ptolemy provided written instructions for mapmaking but made only rough sketches himself; later maps were created under his name.

Historical Description

Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic. In a broader meaning, Bohemia sometimes refers to the entire Czech territory, including Moravia and Czech Silesia, especially in a historical context, such as the Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by Bohemian kings. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia, later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently a part of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Austrian Empire. After World War I and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state, Bohemia became a part of Czechoslovakia. Between 1938 and 1945, border regions with sizeable German-speaking minorities of all three Czech lands were joined to Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland.