Sebastian Münster
Sebastian Münster (20 January 1488 – 26 May 1552),[1] was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Hebrew scholar who was born in Ingelheim, near Mainz, as the son of Andreas Munster.[2]
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[edit] Life
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Münster completed his studies at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen in 1518. His graduate adviser was Johannes Stöffler.[3] He was appointed to the University of Basel in 1527. As Professor of Hebrew, he edited the Hebrew Bible, accompanied by a Latin translation.
Münster wrote the Dictionarium trilingue in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and Mappa Europae (map of Europe) in 1536. In 1537 he published a Hebrew Gospel of Matthew which he had obtained from Spanish Jews he had converted. In 1540 he published a Latin edition of Ptolemy's Geographia with illustrations. The 1550 edition contains cities, portraits, and costumes. These editions, printed in Germany, are the most valued of the Cosmographias.
His work, the Cosmographia from 1544, was the earliest German description of the world. It had numerous editions in different languages including Latin, French, Italian, English, and even Czech. The Cosmographia was one of the most successful and popular books of the 16th century. It passed through 24 editions in 100 years.[4] This success was due to the fascinating woodcuts (some by Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, and David Kandel). It was most important in reviving geography in 16th century Europe. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after his death.
He died at Basel of the plague in 1552.
[edit] Gallery
Several paintings with oil on canvas, woodcuts and copper etchings depict Sebastian Münster, by Hans Holbein d. J. (Basel, c. 1530), Willem de Haen (1615), as rector of the University of Basel (by Christoph Amberger, um 1547), and on the 100-DM-bill as used 1962 to 1991.
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Statue of Sebastian Münster in front of St. Remigius Church, Ingelheim
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Cover of first edition of Cosmographia
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his home town Ingelheim in Cosmographia
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Porträt of Sebastian Münsters, edition of 1628
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Europa regina in Münster's "Cosmographia", 1570.
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Old 100 DM banknote, 1962-1991, depicting Münster's ephige.
[edit] Literature
- Karl Heinz Burmeister: Sebastian Münster - Versuch eines biographischen Gesamtbildes. Basler Beiträge zur Geschichtswissenschaft, Band 91, Basel und Stuttgart 1963 und 1969.
- Karl Heinz Burmeister: Sebastian Münster - Eine Bibliographie. Wiesbaden 1964.
- Hans Georg Wehrens: Freiburg in der „Cosmographia“ von Sebastian Münster (1549); in Freiburg im Breisgau 1504 - 1803, Holzschnitte und Kupferstiche. Verlag Herder, Freiburg 2004, S. 34 ff. ISBN 3-451-20633-1.
- Günther Wessel: Von einem, der daheim blieb, die Welt zu entdecken - Die Cosmographia des Sebastian Münster oder Wie man sich vor 500 Jahren die Welt vorstellte. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-593-37198-7.
- Ludwig Geiger (1886) (in German). "Münster, Sebastian". In Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). 23. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 30–33.
- Claus Priesner: Münster, Sebastian. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 18. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, p. 539–541. (German)
[edit] References
- ^ MapForum Issue 10
- ^ Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Krause, Gerhard Müller (1994). Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Band 23. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 407. ISBN 3110138522. http://books.google.cz/books?id=jwd_lhDN9b4C&pg=PA407&ots=f_S3qwiWi_&dq=sebastian+m%C3%BCnster+%22s+408%22&hl=de&sig=Fn6p7lHf5EldNKnScsHrZycwxBg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=sebastian%20m%C3%BCnster%20%22s%20408%22&f=false.
- ^ Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ New International Encyclopedia
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sebastian Münster |
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German Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Münster, Sebastian". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.- Sebastian Münster in the German National Library catalogue (German)
- (in German) Sebastian Münster. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/m/muenster_s.shtml.
- Sebastian Münster in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- Lateinische Werke im Internet
- Wer war Sebastian Münster? - Umfangreiche Dokumentensammlung des Sebastian-Münster-Gymnasiums in Ingelheim.
- Sebastian Münster, La Cosmographie universelle online excerpts
- Historic Cities: Sebastian Münster
- Schreckenfuchs 1553 Oratio Funebris de Obitu Ssebastiani Munsteri
