Sebastian Münster

Sebastian Münster (* January 20, 1488 in Nieder- Ingelheim, † May 26 1552 in Basel ) was a cosmography, humanist and Hebrew scholar.

• 2.1 Various publications
• 2.2 Main work

Biography

Sebastian Münster was born on January 20, 1488 in Ingelheim am Rhein; when his father is Andreas ( Endres ) Munster called, at that time master of the local Hospital Holy Spirit Hospital.

Training

After studying at the university of his order of the Franciscans in Heidelberg he joined in 1505 at age 17 at the Franciscan order. The Superiors sent the exceptionally gifted for languages ​​students in 1507 initially to Leuven and Freiburg im Breisgau. During the approximately one-year study stay in Freiburg his teacher Gregor Reisch, prior of the Carthusian monastery there, especially for Hebrew and geography inspired him.

1509 Münster went to Rufach, where he became a student of Konrad Pelikan and further formed in Greek, Hebrew, mathematics, astronomy and geography. He studied the natural sciences after the encyclopedia Margarita philosophica of Gregor Reisch. The reading of Pomponius Melas De Chorographia ( 1st century ) influenced Münster sustainable.

1511 he followed his master Pelican at the University of Basel and later to Pforzheim, where he was ordained a priest in 1512. Münster and Pelican expanded their studies to other Semitic languages, especially on the Aramaic and the Ethiopian.

Jobs as a high school teacher

From 1514 to 1518 Munster worked as a lecturer at the university of his order of the Franciscans in Tübingen, where he also called his astrological studies with the famous astronomer Johannes Stöffler, the "father of science ," continued. From 1518 he was teaching at the university of his order in Basel and from 1521 to 1529 in Heidelberg, then in 1524 he was appointed Elector Ludwig V as a professor of Hebrew at the University of Heidelberg.

In 1529 he resigned from the Franciscan Order and was appointed professor at the University of Basel. There he fell into the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants, and finally converted to Protestantism. In 1530 he married Anna -yourself, the widow of the Basel typographer Adam Petri in whose Offizin - under the direction of his stepson Heinrich Petri - his main work, the Cosmographia, should be printed later. 1532 his daughter was born Aretia.

Activity as cosmograph

Freed from worries, Sebastian Münster could devote even more the long-planned preparation of geographical works now. This was followed by his trips to France and Switzerland, Swabia and Bavaria, where he gathered material for further descriptions of the world at that time. Munster had an agreement with more than 100 authors made ​​to produce for him travelogues and local views from around the world and collect. The fact that John Stumpf in Zurich ( Swiss reference ) working on the publication of the Eydgenossenschafft, Munster led to accelerate the completion of the Cosmographia. 1544 appeared the first edition of the Cosmographia, their translations, reissues and extensions employed him throughout his life.

1547 Münster was appointed Rector of the University of Basel. His motto was: " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. "

On May 26, 1552, he died of the plague. The Chummy with him humanist Erasmus Oswald terror fox handed him a Hebrew memorial speech. On his tomb in the Basler Münster, he is referred to as the " German Strabo ".

Work

Various publications

Besides his main work, the Cosmographia, Sebastian Münster has written more than seventy sometimes very extensive works in the field of Hebrew studies, the natural sciences and geography, to theology and biblical studies.

Under the title Liber viarum linguae sacrae (1520 ) he translated the Hebrew grammar of Moses Kimchi. Special mention deserve the Latin -Greek- Hebrew Dictionary Dictionary trilingue (1530) and the first Christian edition of the Bible in Hebrew with a Latin translation (2 volumes, Basel 1534/35 ), the Cosmographia ( 1544) previous geographical work Germania descriptio (1530) and Mappa Europae ( 1536) as well as the editions of antique and contemporary geographers ( 1538-1540 ), including especially the Latin translation of the Greek Geographia of Claudius Ptolemy naturalist with 48 of Sebastian Münster self-designed cards ( 1540).

His late works include the Rudimenta mathematica ( 1551 ) with theorems for elementary geography and their application in the manufacture of astronomical instruments, and finally the edited his own French translation of the Cosmographia ( 1552).

Main work

His main work, the widely used and translated into many languages ​​Cosmographia, Sebastian Münster presented in 1544. The first inspiration for this work had already received in 1524 by the Alsatian humanist Rhenanus Münster. In the preface Minster stressed that he wanted to " with all that is in them a description of the world " give in six books. In fact, the work history and geography, astronomy and natural sciences as well as state and folklore offers after the then state of knowledge. In the first of six text books Munster explains the mathematical geography, for example, the triangulation using a compass and a divided circle. The other five books contain descriptions of various countries on the basis of geographical, historical, and cultural and historical notes.

This Munster presented the first scientific description of the world and at the same time understandable in German language, on which he had worked with more than 120 " persons of rank, scholars and artists " in a preparation period of about twenty years.

Expenditures from 1550 comprise more than 1200 pages and contain 62 cards and 74 town views, including 26 German cities. These editions of the Cosmographia, a new standard for equipping cities books was quantitatively and qualitatively set.

Portraits of Sebastian Münster

Some oil paintings, woodcuts and engravings provide a picture of the personality of Sebastian Münster, including a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger (Basel 1530 ), woodcuts in later editions of the Cosmographia and engravings in biographical works of the 17th century. In the German edition of Cosmographia from 1615 an engraving by Willem de Haen is included with a portrait. Another portrait shows him as Rector of the University of Basel ( after a painting by Christoph Amberger, 1547 ) on the front of the 100 -DM banknote ( there reversed ), which was in circulation from 1962 to 1991.