“Das Heilig Landt mit Ausztheilung der Zwolff Geschlechter.” Hand-colored woodcut map, two pages cojoined.

From: Muenster’s Cosmographia, Basel, Sebastian Henric-Petri, 1588. Map no. XXIII. Classic woodblock map of the region, oriented to the north, showing numerous cities, mountains, rivers and lakes. Flourishing calligraphy fills much of the empty space on the map, as is characteristic of the Petri editions. Title is engraved at top, outside the neatline. Two text blocks within the map provide descriptions of Judea and Jordan. German cartographer, cosmographer and foremost Christian Hebraist scholars of his time, Sebastian Muenster (1489-1552) published his Cosmographia in 1544. It was the earliest German description of the world and had a profound impact on the 16th-century European perception of the modern world. In 1588 new woodcuts were prepared for Muenster’s Cosmographia, which displayed a finer line.