farfel_n01_099_039

(1489-1552) Münster was as well known to contemporaries for the semitic
studies in which he was a pioneer as for his geographical works.

G 1025 T53 v. 5 - born at Niederingelheim, a small town of the Rhenish Palatinate
- from 1503 - 8 stidied arts & theology at Heidelburg where he
entered the Franciscan Order.
- accepted the chair of Hebrew at Univ. of Basel - 1529 -
spent rest of his life there.
- most of Munster's earlier hebriastic publications came from
the press of J. Frober.
- married Adam Petri's widow. H. Petri (his step son)
produced, sometimes in collaboration T Michael
Isingrin, most of his later works.
- the enlarged definitive edition of the Cosmographia
published in 1550 - original -> 1544.
- had been at work on his 'German cosmography' for
almost 10 yrs & in conception goes back as far as 1526 or
even 1524.
Ptolemy's Geographia -> press of H. Petry, March 1540

- Münster - author of the famous Cosmographia (1st edition, 1544)
which was in use for more than a century. His 1st printed
work was a new edition of Etzlaup's map. (1525) New
maps by him appeared in his commentaries on Solinus &
Pomponius Mela (1538) & in his edition of Ptolemy
(1540...T 12 new maps; 1542, T 24). These new maps
were included in the 1st edition of his Cosmographia
(1544); in 1550 he revised this work & added 52
new maps.

p. 152 [inserted] History of Cartography by Leo Bagrow A 526.8 B 14 Santa Clara [end inserted] After Munster's death, successive editions were enriched by the addition
of new maps by other hands. The work was so popular that it
went through 27 German editions, 8 Latin, 3 French, 3 Italian,
4 English & 1 Czech; in Munster's own lifetime, 6
German editions, 3 Latin & 1 French had appeared. The
latest edition seems to be that published at Basel in 1650. Between
its appearance in 1544 & Munster's death it swelled from 649 to 1192 pages.