Portrait of Sebastian Muenster

16th Century Woodcut by Swiss artist Tobias Stimmer (1539 - 1584) from a book by Nikolaus Reusner (1545-1602).

Sebastian Muenster
Sebastian Muenster was born in 1488 at Ingelheim, (Germany) and died in 1552 in Basel, (Switzerland).

Muenster was the true renaissance man: historian, mathematician, geographer, and linguist. For a time he was a Franciscan Monk. After the reformation, he converted to Protestantism. He taught Hebrew at the University of Heidelberg before settling in Basel in 1529.

As a cartographer, he is perhaps best known for his book the Cosmographia published in 1544 which aimed to give a comprehensive picture of the known world in the 16th Century.

Muenster's other works include an illustrated Latin edition of Ptolemy's Geographia with illustrations, a triligual dictionary in Greek, Latin and Hebrew and the Mappa Europae or map of Europe (1536).

The text above this portrait reads "Sebastianus Muensters Cosmographischreiber" (Sebastian Muenster, author of the Cosmography)

The rhyme below reads, as far as we can make out:

Ingolheim mein Gertsstadt ist
Heidelberg und Basel sehr mitstrist (?)
... und Hebraisch sprach
Mein Cosmographi mich rhumpt hernach.
Starb in Jar 1552

"Ingolheim was my birth city
Heidelberg and Basel pleased me (?)
...and spoke Hebrew
My Cosmography made me famous
Died in the year 1552"

Tobias Stimmer, an important figure in the early history of Swiss art, was part of a family of artists that included his father and five brothers.

He ran a workshop in Schaffhausen that produced portraits, and decorative motifs. Later he moved to Strasbourg and worked as an illustrator for anti-Catholic literature beign produced there. While living in STrasbourg he also created the decorations for the Cathedrals astronomical clock and published many woodcuts.

Dimensions: Around 4 X 6.5 inches

Condition: The edges are torn, and there are some holes in the sheet, including one the collar area of the illustration (The holes can be seen as white spots in this image.) Some spotting, as can be seen in scan. Not full sheet.