Sebastian Münster; 1489-1552.
A true renaissance man, this German linguist and mathematician (and Franciscan) may not have been as good a cartographer as Gerard Mercator or Abraham Ortelius. But he is generally credited for having been the first and foremost influence in the spreading of geographical interest and knowledge throughout Europe.
His major publications must have been the most read books of their time (beside religious texts). He expanded on, and corrected, the work of Martin Waldseemüller, on the basis of his massive correspondence with numerous German scholars.
Most of his maps were printed using the woodblock technique of the day.
Of note:
- Geographia in 1540-42-45-52, four editions all in Latin, with 27 Ptolemaic maps and 13 (growing to 27 in the last issue) modern maps.
- Cosmographia Universalis in 1544. In 6 volumes, it was also published by his step son; Henrich Petri, who continued the printing till 1588, well after Münster death of the plague. Further editions in 9 volumes by Petri's son (Henri Sebastian) till 1628 were rushed to print to compete against the more successful Ortelius atlas, with Ortelius maps instead of Munster's! All in all, 33 editions, 19 in German, 5 in Latin, 6 in French, 2 in Italian and 1 in Czech. orks.

Hispania/nach aller seiner gelegenheit/in Bergen.....
This large woodblock print (13 9/16" X 10") was prepared for inclusion in volume II of the Cosmographia.
The present item, in second state, was printed for the 1578 German edition of said work.
Remarkably, most of the place manes are in vernacular, instead of in Latin as it was customary at the time.
Remark the massive rework done on the matrix in the central region, most probably to allow for the growing importance of Madrid which replaced Toledo as the seat of the royal house in 1561.

Center engraving with German text on verso.