1488-1552

German cartographer, cosmographer, and Hebrew scholar whose work revived European interest in geography. Professor of Hebrew at the University of Basel from 1527, he translated a number of ancient works, including Ptolemy's Geographia. His description of the world, published as Cosmographia in 1544, was widely read. It was translated into five languages and printed in forty editions. His map of the New World was the most widely used for a number of years.