Die Lander Asie nach irer Gelegenheit bisz in India werden in diser Tafel Verzeichnet de MUNSTER, Sebastian (1489-1552)

[Basel: ca 1545]. Single sheet (13 x 10 inches). Fine woodcut map showing the Asian continent. This fine woodcut is an early Ptolemaic map from Muenster's "Cosmographiae universalis". This is one of the earliest maps of the whole continent based on the geographical discoveries by Portuguese navigators. The outline of the Asian mainland is relatively well established, but Munster omits the extreme northeast of Asia, still believed to be joined to the New World. Japan is also missing, as it appeared on Munster's New World map instead. India appears as a peninsula and Sri Lanka, called Zalon, is correctly located. Cambay, Goa and Cannonore are all shown, reflecting the Portuguese presence on India's west coast. Malacca is properly placed on the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra has inherited the name Taprobana from Sri Lanka, but also bears the name Sumatra. Java appears as two islands, Java Maior and Java Minor, one shown north of the other. The famed Spice Islands of the Moluccas are located, but oddly shaped. An archipelago of 7448 islands lies off the eastern coastline of China. The Indian Ocean is filled with a huge sea monster and a fantastic two-tailed mermaid. Sebastian Munster was to become one of "the most influential cartographers in the sixteenth century" (Burden). Essentially he published Ptolemy's "Geography" with a "further section of modern, more up to date maps. He included for the first time a set of continental maps, the America was the earliest of any notes. He was one of the first to create space in the woodblock for insertion of place-names in metal type. The maps' inclusion in Munster's "Cosmography". sealed the fate of "America" as the name for the new world. The book proved to be very popular, there being nearly forty editions during the following 100 years." (Burden)..