Alsace and Breisgau – Alsatia et Brigoia II * Rheni et VII Nova Tabula

Alsace: first edition of the first wood cut by Münster

The map was published in the edition of Münster’s Geografia of 1540. West is at the top of the map.

This atlas include some of the oldest European new regional maps.

This map shows a section of the Middle Rhine from Strasbourg (Argentina) to Leufenburg in great detail.  It centers on centered on Brisach and Kappel and showing Colmar. The map shows rivers and mountain ranges. This is not surprising, since Münster’s professional life took place in this region since he usually worked in Basel.

Münster dominated cartographic publication during the mid-16th Century and is generally regarded as one of the most important map makers of the 16th Century. He was a linguist and mathematician, who initially taught Hebrew in Heidelberg. He issued his first mapping of Germany in 1529, after which he issued a call geographical information about Germany to scholars throughout the country. The response was better than hoped for, and included substantial foreign material, which supplied him with up to date, if not necessarily accurate maps for the issuance of his Geographia in 1540. A fine dark impression with wide margins.