Sarmatia Asie / Das Asiatisch Sarmatia. Das Wasser Rha nennen die Reussen Volga / die...

Early woodcut map of the Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea by Sebastian Munster. With the rivers Volga and Don in the north, and the Tigris and Euphrates in the south. Shows today southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the eastern Ukraine with parts of Turkey. From the German edition of Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, titled Cosmographey oder beschreibung aller Lander, 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.