[MAP]
[MÜNSTER, SEBASTIAN] Il Cuscho Citta Principale Della Provincia Del Peru. [Basle: after 1556?]. 12 1/2 x 16 3/8 inches (sheet); woodblock map, hand-colored, printed recto and verso, extracted from a German language edition of Münster's Cosmographia. Rubbing, soiling and creasing, small tear near top edge, dampstain along the fold at the bottom of sheet, edges reinforced on verso, mounted along top edge to thick wove paper, sold as is.

Munster's birdseye view of the Peruvian city Cusco, the capital of the Inca empire, shows a well-organized walled city with a large stepped temple to one side. The scene is populated with approaching Spanish soldiers, reminiscent of Francisco Pizarro's conquistador army, and Inca soldiers and townspeople within the city walls. The map is closely based on one by Giovanni Battista Ramusio that was first published in 1556. The verso of the sheet has a map of the city called Themistitan, or Mexico City, based on Hernan Cortes's 1524 map. Munster's Cosmographia was an updated version Ptolemy's Geographia using and synthesizing available sources, both ancient and modern. The work was so popular that it was published in five languages and over forty editions between 1544 and 1628.