Ptolemaisch General Tafel / begreifend die halbe Kugel der Welt.

Article description

Original antique hand colored woodcut. Verso illustrated with a decorative uncolored woodcut illustration. A highly decorative woodcut map by famous mapmaker Sebastian Münster published in his edition of the 'Cosmographia' 1550 in Basel at Heinrich Petri. The decorative woodcut bordures verso were probably cut by the famous 16th century woodcutter Hans Holbein. Nearly none of the captivating woodcut borders verso are repeating, they are mainly shaped by allegoric scenes, coat of arms or wonderful initials. This is the famous woodcut map of the 'Antique World' published in Sebastian Münster's edition of the Cosmographia around 1550 in Basel. Probably one of the most decorative woodcut world maps published in the 16th century. It is surrounded by clouds and twelve named blowing wind heads, the antique world is shown as a schematic woodcut map. It shows the predominant conception of the world geography prior to the discovery of the New World and it is based on Claudius Ptolemy. The schematic world map names the Northern Arctic regions 'Mare Glaciale', Taprobana (Sri Lanka) in the Indian Ocean is laid out as a huge large island compared to other parts of the world, also multiple lake sources for the river system of the Nile is remarkable on the African continent. Enclosed Indian Ocean, large Taprobana (Ceylon), and multiple lake sources for the Nile.