Woodcut map, later hand-coloring. 25.1x34 cm. (9¾X13¼"), hinged to mat.

Map of the old world as delineated in the writings of Claudius Ptolemy. "Sebastian Münster was a Professor of Hebrew at Basle University and an eminent hebraist, mathematician and geographer. He produced his own edition of Ptolemy's Geographia in 1540, adding a number of significantly new maps to the modern section of the work. In the classical section is a Ptolemaic world map with a surround of clouds and windheads." This last is the present map, and Shirley notes that there were "further editions of the Geographia in 1541, 1542, 1545 and 1552. These were all printed in Basle with Latin text and carry a fine vertical crack line across the right-hand part of the map" which is present, under close examination, on the present map. On the verso, right-hand side, is a short Latin text beginning "Descriptio Orbis generalis...," in a small engraved box featuring a knight on horseback. Shirley 76.