Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers

2014 Edition
| Editors: Thomas Hockey, Virginia Trimble, Thomas R. Williams, Katherine Bracher, Richard A. Jarrell, Jordan D. MarchéII, JoAnn Palmeri, Daniel W. E. Green

Münster, Sebastian

Reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9413
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Alternate Name

 Munsterus, Sebastianus

BornNieder-Ingelheim (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany), 20 January 1488

DiedBasel, Switzerland, 26 May 1552

Sebastian Münster was one of the outstanding cosmographers of his day, as well as a major philologist of Arabic and biblical Hebrew. His influence is attributable in part to his productivity, extraordinary even for the sixteenth century, and the popularity and wide distribution of some of his works. His abilities lay more in the direction of compilation than innovation, although he did show some creativity in building on the work of his predecessors. There is a Janus-like quality to what Münster achieved.

Münster was born to a fairly well-off family, his father Andreas holding the office of Master of the Hospital of the Holy Cross at Nieder-Ingelheim. His early education was in the traditional subjects of the trivium and quadrivium. He may have pursued studies at either the University of Heidelberg or the Franciscan Studium generale. Münster was...

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Selected References

  1. Burmeister, Lindau Karl Heinz (1969). Sebastian Münster: Versuch eines biographischen Gesamtbildes. Basler Beiträge zur Geschichtswissenschaft, 91. Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn.Google Scholar
  2. Hantzsch, Viktor (1898). Sebastian Münster, Leben, Werk, wissenschaftliche Bedeutung. Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Classe der Konigl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Band XVIII, No. III. Leipzig: Teubner.Google Scholar
  3. Kremer, Richard L. (2011). “Experimenting with Paper Instruments in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Astronomy: Computing Szygies with Isotemporal Lines and Salt Dishes.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 42(2): 223–258.ADSCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. McLean, Matthew (2007). The Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster: Describing the World of the Reformation. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
  5. Moll, J. C. Albert (1877). Johannes Stöffler von Justingen. Lindau: J.T. Stettner.Google Scholar
  6. Münster, Sebastian (1525). Eyn new vund kurtzweilig Instrument der Sonnen. Oppenheim: Jakob Koebel.Google Scholar
  7. — (1527). Kalendarium hebraicum. Basel: Johannes Froben.Google Scholar
  8. — (1528). Erklerung des neuen Instruments der Sunnen. Oppenheim: Jakob Koebel.Google Scholar
  9. — (1531). Compositio horologiorum. Basel: Heinrich Petri.Google Scholar
  10. — (1533). Horolographia. Basle: Heinrich Petri.Google Scholar
  11. — (1536). Organum uranicum. Basel: Heinrich Petri.Google Scholar
  12. — (1537). Fürmalung un künstlich beschreibung der Horologien. Basel: Heinrich Petri.Google Scholar
  13. — (1544). Cosmographia. Basel: Heinrich Petri.Google Scholar
  14. — (1551). Rudimenta mathematica. Basel: Heinrich PetriGoogle Scholar
  15. Oestmann, Günther (1993). Schicksalsdeutung und Astronomie: Der Himmelsglobus des Johannes Stoeffler von 1493. Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum.Google Scholar
  16. Poulle, Emmanuel (1980). Les instruments de la théorie des planètes selon Ptolémée: Équatoires et horlogerie planétaire du XIIIe au XVIe siècle. Geneva-Paris: Droz and H. Champion.Google Scholar
  17. Sebastian Münster: Katalog zur Ausstellung aus Anlass des 500. Geburtstages am 20. Januar 1988 im Museum – Altes Rathaus Ingelheimam Rhein, edited by Karl Heinz Burmeister. Ingelheim: Stadt Ingelheim am Rhein.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Royal Astronomical Society of CanadaTorontoCanada