Woodblock map (27.5 x 34.5 cm) of Europe, orientated in reverse with the south above, mounted in passe-partout. Sebastian Munster's famous and curious upside-down map of Europe first appeared in his edition of Ptolemy's 'Geographia' in 1540 and then later in his 'Cosmographia' (1578). The strange orientation (a German protocol to align maps with the solar compass) was a Ptolomaeic convention and was widely used in Germany in the first half of the 16th-century
Sebastian Munster (1489-1552) was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Hebrew scholar. He also became a Franciscan monk at an early age. Munster's Cosmographia was the first work of scientific based knowledge in the German language. He became one of the most influential geographers of the 16th century