MÜNSTER, SEBASTIAN

(1489-1552)

German geographer, edu-cated at Tübingen and Heidelberg. He became a Franciscan in 1505 but was converted to Protestantism in 1529 and moved to Switzer-land, where he became professor of mathematics at the University ofBaselin 1536. He was a specialist inHebrewand Chaldean (Ara-maic) languages, producing grammars of those languages and an edi-tion of the Hebrew Bible (1534-1535). HisHorologiographia(1530) was a treatise on sundials. He published an edition of theGeographyof Ptolemy in 1540. Münster's most influential work wasCosmo-graphia Universalis/Universal Cosmography(1544), which is illus-trated with woodcuts and maps, not only for Western Europe (where his maps are very detailed) but also for non-European regions (where his maps are often vague because of the lack of reliable information).