The rare first edition of Sebastian Münster’s Europa Prima Nova Tabul, published in 1540 and printed by Heinrich Petri at Basel, is one of the earliest obtainable printed maps devoted solely to the European continent and marks an important departure from the traditional Ptolemaic model. The stunning ornamental woodcut borders containing the virtues on the verso which are thought to have been done by Hans Holbein the younger since he was working with several Basel publishers at this time.
This first edition is often found incorrectly dated and is identified by the following:
The title has a space between the letter E and V (u) which is corrected in later editions.
The verso has;
Evropa as the heading
Text is in Latin
The page number 29 at lower right
The ornamental woodcut borders containing the virtues
It formed part of Münster’s celebrated revision of Ptolemy’s Geographia, in which the twenty-seven classical maps were supplemented by twenty-one modern maps, including the first separate maps of Europe, Asia, Africa and America to appear in a printed atlas. The 1540 Geographia represented a landmark in Renaissance cartography, combining the geographical framework of classical antiquity with the latest geographical knowledge available in the early sixteenth century.
The map presents Europe in an unusual orientation, with south at the top and north at the bottom, a convention inherited from several earlier manuscript traditions but rarely encountered in later printed cartography. The continent is depicted with remarkable detail for its period, showing an extensive network of rivers, mountain ranges, forests and settlements. While the overall geography reflects the limitations of contemporary knowledge, Münster incorporated the most recent regional sources available, particularly for Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, producing a representation that was considerably more accurate than earlier printed maps of the continent. A large sailing ship embellishes the Atlantic Ocean, while the decorative woodcut style typifies the craftsmanship of the Basel printing workshops.
Printed by Heinrich Petri at Basel. It appeared in the first Latin edition of Münster’s Geographia in 1540, and was reprinted in the Latin edition of 1542, and subsequently incorporated into the enlarged editions of 1545 and 1552. From 1544 the same woodblock was also used in Münster’s immensely successful Cosmographia, ensuring its wide dissemination throughout Europe. Although later impressions show minor typographical differences in the accompanying text and verso settings, the woodcut itself remained substantially unchanged until it was replaced in the later sixteenth century.
As the first edition of 1540, this map represents the earliest state of Münster’s modern map of Europe and one of the foundational works of Renaissance regional cartography. Together with his companion maps of Asia, Africa and America, it established a new approach to mapping the known world and exerted a lasting influence on European atlas production throughout the sixteenth century.
