This map is an appended map of the book Universal Cosmography (Cosmograhpia Universalis) written by Sebastian Munster (Sebastian Münster, 1489-1552). As an erudite scholar in Germany, Sebastian Munster published more than 40 maps in Universal Cosmography in Latin in 1544. Since its publication to the early 17th century, this book was reprinted continuously and translated into German, French, Italian, Czech, etc. and the maps in the book were also widespread. However, as the Europeans continued to enrich the knowledge of world geography, maps in Sebastian Munster’s original book Universal Cosmography became outdated. Sebastian Munster’s successor Peter Sebastian (Sebastian Petri, also known as Sebastian Henricpetri) redrew over 20 maps based on new geographical knowledge. When Sebastian Munster’s Universal Cosmography was republished in 1588, Sebastian Peter replaced the old maps of the original book with the new atlas including this “Map of Asia”. The 1588 edition of Universal Cosmography was reprinted four times in Germany (the last time was in 1628), so the appended “Map of Asia” has multiple copies, one of which is collected by Bohdan Krawciw (1904-1975). Krawciw was born in Ukraine and later he immigrated to the United States where he was mainly engaged in journalism. In 2005, his daughter donated this map and other collections together to Harvard University. Referring to Abraham Ortelius’s “Map of Asia”, this map wrongly portrays the whole coastline of East Asia as a straight line and missed China’s Shandong Peninsula, Liaodong Peninsula and so on. Although this map is absent of color, but there appeared a different version with other colors elsewhere.It's interesting that although there is no Macao depicted in the map, but there is a place narmed Matan nearby the entrance of the Pearl River. 

The map is copied from the single map from Harvard University Library (G7400 1550 .M8). 

Reference:

[1]. Moreland, C. (1989). Antique maps (3rd ed.). Oxford: Phaidon Christie's.

[2]. Meurer, P. (2007). Cartography in the German Lands, 1450–1650. In D. Woodward, editor, The History of Cartography (Vol. 3, pt. 2, pp. 1209-1213). Cartography in the European Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[3]. Harvard University. (2014). Open Collections Program: Immigration to the US, Bohdan Krawciw (1904-1975). Retrieved 20 June 2014, from http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/krawciw.html

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Data de atualização: 2020/09/09