Munster’s first printed map of Africa

An important early woodcut map of Africa, issued in the 1538 edition of Solinus’ Polyhistor, edited and illustrated by Sebastian Münster. Based largely on the geography of Claudius Ptolemy, the map presents the continent in trapezoidal projection. Among its most notable features are the prominently depicted Mountains of the Moon (Montes Lunae), shown as the source of the Nile, together with a westward-flowing Niger River. The map is regarded as Münster’s earliest printed map of Africa, predating his separate continental map of 1540.