India Extrema, XIX, nova tabula

Acquired From: Leen Helmink

Colouring: Uncoloured

Condition: Excellent

Confirmed: 2/10/2024

Date Acquired: 5/9/2016

Description: Sebastian Münster, professor of Hebrew at the University of Basel, published a Latin edition of Claudius Ptolemys Geographia in 1540. This edition included twenty-seven Ptolemaic maps and twenty-one modern maps, among them this map, titled India Extrema, XIX, nova tabula. Unlike Münster's earlier 1538 map of Asia (View Record (#232)), this version incorporates a greater body of contemporary geographic information and shows reduced reliance on strictly Ptolemaic descriptions.nThe map integrated Portuguese maritime knowledge by marking trading centres like Aden, Goa, and Malacca. It also includes a cluster of islands off the coast of China labelled Archipelago of 7448 islands, a detail taken from Marco Polos travel account, as described in the 1532 edition of Novus orbis regionum. nDespite these updates, medieval elements remain, such as the depiction of Java as two separate islands (Java Minor and Java Maior) and the inclusion of mythical sea monsters.nMünsters Geographia was reprinted in multiple editions (1541, 1542, 1545, 1551, and 1552). Each retained the map of Asia, thought the 1540 version is distinguished by a single decorative printers device to the left of the title. In the 1545 and 1552 editions, the maps title was revised to India Extrema, XXIIII, nova tabula. nWithin ''Updating the Classical World,'' this map reflects a careful expansion of Ptolemaic geography through the selective incorporation of new maritime knowledge.nSee #96 for the 1558 Italian edition.

First published: Geographia universalis, vetus et nova complectens Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini enarrationis libros VIII Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1540

Image Size (cm): 27 x 34

Mapmaker: Münster, Sebastian (1488-1552)

Other states: In subsequent editions of Geographia in 1541, 1542, 1545, 1551, and 1552

Price: 2,200

Primary Category: Asia

Purchase Reference: Ledger 2022.

Rarity: R2 Very rare – one or two copies appear on the market

References: Parry, The Cartography of the East Indian Islands. pg 65, pl 3.8; nSuarez, Early Mapping of Southeast Asia, pg 127, Fig. 72;nRobert W. Karrow, Sebastian Münster, in Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and Their Maps: Bio-Bibliographies of the Cartographers of Abraham Ortelius, 1570 (Chicago, IL: Speculum Orbis Press, 1993), 41034.nRaleigh Ashlin Skelton, Bibliographical Note, in Sebastian Munster. Geographia. Basle 1540. With an Introduction by R. A Skelton, 3rd Ser. Vol. 5 (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1966), vxinSimon Dewez, The Printed World III (Sydney: Gowrie Galleries, 2000), 15, map 19.nHarold L. Ruland, A Survey of the Double-Page Maps in Thirty-Five Editions of the Cosmographia Universalis 1544-1628 of Sebastian Münster and in His Editions of Ptolemys Geographia 1540-1552, Imago Mundi 16 (1962): 8497.

Sheet size (cm): 30.7 x 38

Technique: Woodcut

This state: First