Von den lendern Asie. / Das fünffte buch

Title

Von den lendern Asie. / Das fünffte buch

View of a white horse, on reverse a representation of a -sea horse- (hippocamp). The hippocampus or hippocamp,, is a mythological creature. The hippocampus has typically been depicted as having the upper body of a horse with the lower body of a fish.

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a leading Renaissance cosmographer. His most famous work, the Cosmographia (1544), was a comprehensive description of the world with 24 maps, based on research dating back to 1528. Continuously revised, the 1550 edition already included many new maps. It was the first scientific yet accessible world description published in German, illustrated with numerous woodcuts by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1544 and 1650, the Cosmographia appeared in 46 editions (27 in German) and was translated into several languages. Münster’s work combined the knowledge of scholars, artists, and travelers and remained influential long after his death.