Portrait of the Cosmographer Sebastian Münster (1488-1552)

A 16th-century inscription on the back of the panel provides Information about the subject. It says: “Sebastian Münster Cosmographus. Painted at the age of 65, Ao. 1552”. Sebastian Münster was born in 1488 in Ingelheim in Rhine-Hesse, entered the Franciscan Order as a young man and then studied in Heidelberg, Louvain and Tübingen. Later he dedicated himself to the Reformation. He was a teacher and professor, subsequently becoming Rector of the University of Basel, where he died in 1552. Münster’s fame was based on the Cosmographia Universalis, a comprehensive description of the world in six volumes, which appeared in new editions well into the 17th century. | Prestel Museum Guides - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2012