1574 Woodcut view of Antwerp, after Hoefnagel

Joris Hoefnagel or Georg Hoefnagel (1542 - July 24, 1601) was a Flemish painter, printmaker, miniaturist, draftsman and merchant. A prolific illustrator, he was noted for his works of natural history and topography. He was the last notable manuscript illuminator; his designs were influential in the development of still-life painting as a genre. He was the son of a dealer in diamonds and luxuries, was given a broad humanistic education, commanded several languages, and could play various musical instruments. Although it is not documented, it is believed he received his training in painting from Hans Bol in Antwerp. He attended the universities of Bourges and Orléans, but the turmoil of the first French War of Religion forced him to flee back to Antwerp in 1563. His family business then sent him to Spain and England, though he would return frequently to Antwerp until the 1576 sack of the city during the Eighty Years War uprooted him. His travels thereafter took him to the Rhineland, Venice, and Rome. He visited ancient sites in the Kingdom of Naples. He produced an array of views and landscapes capturing the places he visited firsthand; more than a few of these would be committed to print by Braun and Hogenberg in their Civitates Orbis Terrarum, on which Hoefnagel worked for most of his adult life. He is known to have provided Ortelius with at least one map, depicting Cadiz and its environs. His skills developed, and he would be recommended to Albert V Duke of Bavaria as court painter. In spite of offers to serve the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, he moved to Munich and painted for Albert for eight years. The position granted him great freedom to choose his own subjects of work, and to accept commissions broadly. In addition to producing his own work, he sold and collected old master drawings. Religious conflict forced him, a Calvinist, to leave Munich in 1591. He then went to work for Emperor Rudolf II, first residing in the city of Frankfurt am Main, and that vibrant trade center gave him access to a circle of Flemish humanists, such as Carolus Clusius, who would influence his later botanical illustrations. In 1594, he was yet again forced to leave because of his Calvinist faith, working his final years in Vienna and Prague. He died in Vienna. More by this mapmaker...

Sebastian Münster (January 20, 1488 - May 26, 1552), was a German cartographer, cosmographer, Hebrew scholar and humanist. He was born at Ingelheim near Mainz, the son of Andreas Munster. He completed his studies at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen in 1518, after which he was appointed to the University of Basel in 1527. As Professor of Hebrew, he edited the Hebrew Bible, accompanied by a Latin translation. In 1540 he published a Latin edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, which presented the ancient cartographer's 2nd century geographical data supplemented systematically with maps of the modern world. This was followed by what can be considered his principal work, the Cosmographia. First issued in 1544, this was the earliest German description of the modern world. It would become the go-to book for any literate layperson who wished to know about anywhere that was further than a day's journey from home. In preparation for his work on Cosmographia, Münster reached out to humanists around Europe and especially within the Holy Roman Empire, enlisting colleagues to provide him with up-to-date maps and views of their countries and cities, with the result that the book contains a disproportionate number of maps providing the first modern depictions of the areas they depict. Münster, as a religious man, was not producing a travel guide. Just as his work in ancient languages was intended to provide his students with as direct a connection as possible to scriptural revelation, his object in producing Cosmographia was to provide the reader with a description of all of creation: a further means of gaining revelation. The book, unsurprisingly, proved popular and was reissued in numerous editions and languages including Latin, French, Italian, and Czech. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after Münster's death of the plague in 1552. Cosmographia was one of the most successful and popular books of the 16th century, passing through 24 editions between 1544 and 1628. This success was due in part to its fascinating woodcuts (some by Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch, and David Kandel). Münster's work was highly influential in reviving classical geography in 16th century Europe, and providing the intellectual foundations for the production of later compilations of cartographic work, such as Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Münster's output includes a small format 1536 map of Europe; the 1532 Grynaeus map of the world is also attributed to him. His non-geographical output includes Dictionarium trilingue in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and his 1537 Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. Most of Munster's work was published by his stepson, Heinrich Petri (Henricus Petrus), and his son Sebastian Henric Petri. Learn More...

Heinrich Petri (1508 - 1579) and his son Sebastian Henric Petri (1545 – 1627) were printers based in Basel, Switzerland. Heinrich was the son of the printer Adam Petri and Anna Selber. After Adam died in 1527, Anna married the humanist and geographer Sebastian Münster - one of Adam's collaborators. Sebastian contracted his stepson, Henricus Petri (Petrus), to print editions of his wildly popular Cosmographia. Later Petri, brought his son, Sebastian Henric Petri, into the family business. Their firm was known as the Officina Henricpetrina. In addition to the Cosmographia, they also published a number of other seminal works including the 1566 second edition of Nicolaus Copernicus's De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium and Georg Joachim Rheticus's Narratio. Learn More...