(1488-1552) was a German cartographer, cos. mographer, and Hebrew scholar whose Cosmographia (1544; "Cosmography") was the earliest German description of the world and a major work - after the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 - in the revival of geographic thought in 16th-century Europe. Altogether, about 40 editions of the Cosmographia appeared during 1544-1628. Although other cosmographies predate Münster's, he is given first place in historical discussions of this sort of publication, and was a major influence on his subject for over 200 years.

In nearly all works about Münster, his Cosmographia is given pride of place. Despite this, we still lack a detailed survey of its contents from edition to edition, during the years 1544 to 1628, and an account of its influence on a wide range of scientific disciplines. Münster obtained the material for his book in three ways. He used all available literary sources. He tried to obtain original manuscript material for description of the countryside and of villages and towns. Finally, he obtained further material on his travels (primarily in south-west Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace). Cosmographia contained not only the latest maps and views of many well-known cities, but included an encyclopaedic amount of detail about the known - and unknown - world and undoubtedly must have been one of the most widely read books of its timeAside from the well-known maps and views present in the Cosmographia, the text is thickly sprinkled with vigorous woodcuts: portraits of kings and princes, costumes and occupations, habits and customs, flora and fauna, monsters and horrors. Münster divided his material into six books. Book I is a useful summary of astronomical-mathematical and physical geography. Book II deals with England, Spain, France, and Italy. Book III deals with Germany and surrounding lands. Book IV embraces northern, eastern, and south-eastern Europe. Books V (Asia and America) and VI (Africa) are of modest proportions.

This authentic leaf from one of the earliest editions of Cosmographia is devoted to Far East (De terris Asiae maioris), in particular to China. In his description of China, Münster relied largely on Marco Polo's book Il milione ("The Million"), known in English as the "Travels of Marco Polo". He refers to China as Cathay - the name by which North China was known in medieval Europe. The word is derived from Khitay (or Khitan), the name of a seminomadic people who left southeastern Mongolia in the 10th century AD to conquer part of Manchuria and northern China, which they held for about 200 years. By the time of Genghis Khan (died 1227), the Mongols had begun referring to North China as Kitai and South China as Mangi (Mangy, Manzi).

This leaf from Cosmographia consists of two parts. The first part, page 1097, deals with the Mangi province. Here, Münster basically repeats the information contained in the second Book "Il milione",. In particular, he talks about Quinsai (Kinsai, Quinsay, now Hang-chou, Hangzhou or Hangchow) - capital of Zhejiang Province. At the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was one of the largest and finest cities in the world, with over one million inhabitants. He also talks about towns of Caigui, Conigangui, Panchi, and the kingdom of Fugui.

The second part ot the leaf describes the vast province of Kansu (called "Tangut" by Marco) in Inner Mongolia. In 1038 the Tangut proclaimed their own kingdom of Hsi Hsia, which survived for nearly two centuries with remarkable stability despite a series of on-and-off border clashes with the neighboring states in North China. The kingdom's end came with the Genghis Khan's Mongols, who literally wiped out the Tan gut population (1226-33). Münster talks about the town of Sachion (Shachau) belonging to the Great Khan (magni Cham) . Although the Nestorian Christians and Saracens lived there, the majority were "idolaters" (idololatrae). They built a great number of monasteries and churches full of idols and devils, to whom they worshiped and offered the sacrifices. As a way of baptizing their children, says Marco (and Münster repeats after him), the idolaters would kill a large ram, offering it to the idol with great ceremony and praying for the well-being of their children. The idolaters also offered similar sacrifices in food to their dead before cremating them. The family of the dead would build a small wooden hut, swathed in silk and gold, on the path leading to the place of burning. When the funeral procession passed by that hut, it would stop there, and wine, meat and other food would be brought out. The relatives would wait for the procession to arrive at the place of burning with prepared sculptures of people, horses, camels, and with small round pieces cut out from parchment in the form of golden coins, putting them on the fire together with the body. Before the burning, the astrologers were invited and informed of the year, day and hour of the birth of the deceased. After the astrologers had determined under which constellation planet and sign the deceased was born, they proclaimed the day on which he should be burned. The body was kept, until that day, in the house and in a coffin of thick and nicely colored plates. To prevent decay they put camphor and spices in the coffin, and filled the fissures with tar and lime.