Woodcut map of Europe, depicted as a queen, original woodcut, 26 x 16,2 cm, coloured by hand. Tasteful gilded frame by Mappamundi, behind glass
This map of Europe was published in Sebastian Münster's: ""Cosmographie oder Beschreibung aller Länder, herschaften fürnemsten stetten..."" The map shows the continent (west at the top) with the Iberian peninsula as the head with crown, Italy and Denmark as the arms, carrying an orb and sceptre, and Greece, Bulgaria and Tartary as the hem of the gown. ""This image echoes how the ancient geographer had described the mapping of communities as the work fitting for an artist, not a geographer. Removed from scale, coordinates, or even the pretense of cartographical precision and accuracy, the gendered map was a grander form of the genre of chorography - described in early modern treatises of geography as a qualitative rather than quantitative the map of a place or community.""
Ref. Brownstein, Europa Regina.
Ref. Van der Heijden, Leo Belgicus, p. 12
