MUENSTER SEBASTIAN Cosmographiae universalis lib VI 1559

Sale 2140 - Lot 77

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Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000

MUENSTER, SEBASTIAN. Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI. Title within elaborate woodcut historiated border (cropped in upper and outer margins), with portrait of Muenster on verso; 14 double-page woodcut maps, including 2 world maps (the first with outer margins trimmed near border) and one of the Americas; 41 double-page city views, including 3 folding panoramas; over 900 woodcut illustrations, including views, maps, historical scenes, portraits, allegorical figures, fantastic creatures, etc. Some use of Hebrew type. [24], 1162, [2] pages. Thick folio, 305x200 mm, contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, rebacked retaining 19th-century morocco backstrip; occasional light soiling and minor marginal browning, light marginal dampstaining at beginning and end, outer margins of double-page maps and views folded in, repaired clean tear in corner of last leaf, 20th-century catalogue descriptions mounted on front free endpaper. Early signature of Charles Fairfax on title; 12-line Latin poem signed "Ja. Ryther" on verso of the map of modern Europe. (Basel: Henricus Petri, March 1559)

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First published in 1544 in German, the most comprehensive work of descriptive geography of its time. Pages 1099-1133 contain newly revised text relating to the Americas. The book ends with Latin and Hebrew versions of the so-called Prester John letter, the spurious account of a legendary Christian kingdom in the East. Adams M1911; Alden 559/30; Shirley 77, 92.