Cales / Arras

Early woodcut view of Calais. On verso the view of Arras. From the German edition of Sebastian Münster's Cosmography, Cosmographey oder beschreibung aller Länder, on the full text sheet. The sheet was published 1574 by Heinrich Petri in Basel.

A very good copy.

Sebastian Münster was born 1489 in Ingelheim (Pfalz). First being a Franciscan, he became Professor for Theology, Hebrew and Mathematics after he converted to Protestantism in 1529. He became one of the most influencing geographers of the sixteenth century. His Cosmographia, published in 1544, spread geographical knowledge wide over Europe. It was issued in nearly 40 editions and 6 languages. Münster was the first cartographer publishing each known continent on a separate map. His second important work was the Geographia, a new edition of Ptolemys Geographia. He died May 1552 in Basel on Black Death.