Europa Regina - Sebastian Münster, 1588. (Antique Map In Color)
This map shows Europe in the shape of a young queen. The Iberian Peninsula forms her crowned head, France and the Holy Roman Empire make up her upper body, and her long dress stretches across Central and Eastern Europe. Italy and Denmark become her arms, holding a sceptre and an orb. All of this is printed on warm parchment style paper, so it feels like a page from a late 16th century book.
About this map print
Europa Regina, Latin for “Queen Europe,” is a famous way of drawing the continent as a single figure. The idea first appeared in the 1530s with a map by Johannes Putsch and became popular in the later 16th century. Sebastian Münster’s woodcut version was printed in his book Cosmographia, where it helped readers imagine Europe as one united Christian world rather than just a set of separate countries.
In this design the Iberian Peninsula is the crowned head, the Pyrenees form the neck, and France and the German lands become the chest, with Bohemia near the heart of the figure. Her dress runs over Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, the Balkans and Greece, while Italy stretches out as an arm holding the orb, and Denmark forms the arm with the sceptre. The British Isles sit as small islands near the sceptre, and parts of Scandinavia, Africa and Asia appear only at the edges, so the focus stays firmly on Europe herself.
The map is more symbolic than scientific. Real geography is bent to fit the queen’s shape, which is why coastlines and borders look different from your other Europe maps. The same taste for playful, shaped maps shows up again in Heinrich Bünting’s figurative designs, like his clover leaf world map and his Asia as Pegasus map.
Craft & finish
This antique map print is made on hand processed paper. We add subtle gold by hand and finish it with beeswax so it feels close to real parchment when you hold it. The surface catches the light softly, but colors can look a little different from screen to screen.
You can find more pieces like this in our Antique Maps collection.
Europa Regina (Sebastian Münster, 1588.) - Map of Europe as a Queen
In case your print creases during the travel, as it usually does travel for some time, you can safely warm it up with a hair-dryer, and the wax will melt back right into it. You can also use a lighter, which is a much faster method, but be careful to keep the flame either above the paper or parallel to it (which means holding the paper vertically) so it doesn't smudge or even catch fire. The chance of the print actually creasing is very small, as they are rolled in bubble-wrap and shipped in a cardboard box.Also, be sure to keep the print out of the direct sunlight, as it can melt or fade.
Visit the link below to see more about how our replicas are made, how to display them, and repair the damage:
https://www.artifex-replicas.com/post/about-our-parchment-replicas
