In 1544 Sebastian Münster published his encyclopedic Cosmographia, an amply illustrated universal geography and history, one of the more significant books written and printed in the sixteenth century. McLean's monograph is the first full-length study in English of Münster and his book, and is therefore very welcome. His success in writing a total history of the Cosmographia is uneven. Following a biographical introduction, McLean offers a survey of the western geographical and cartographical tradition, which takes up almost a third of the book. This is disappointing and would have made more sense if trimmed and dispersed where pertinent within the following sections, dedicated to Münster and his work. McLean does not always consult the most recent or authoritative scholarship available. Thus the notorious Stevenson translation of Ptolemy's Geography (1932) prevails over the excellent work of Berggren and Jones (2000), while Wilson's Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1977) is not mentioned. The survey is in fact a synthesis of other, at times antiquated, syntheses, and offers little that is fresh. The author tends to quote extensively, from secondary sources, where normally a referenced summary would have done a better job. Then follow two mainly descriptive chapters, detailing Münster's working methods and the major themes included in the Cosmographia. The final chapter offers an interpretation. McLean convincingly and often elegantly interprets the Cosmographia as a literary Wunderkammer, an all-inclusive frame that catches the diversity of the book of nature. In the Cosmographia, McLean demonstrates, Münster presents an arena of God's providential work, raising and erasing empires, turning fertile regions arid and vice-versa. Another interesting point is Münster's avoidance of confessional polemics, striking over the flammable religious history of the sixteenth century. McLean sees the Cosmographia, less convincingly, as an attempt by Münster to ‘rechristianize a worldview which had been blanched of its moral content’ (p. 282) by the mathematisation of geography. Recent research in the history of geography and cartography questions the validity of such contrasts, as well as the usefulness of the term Weltbild, which McLean adopts wholeheartedly and uncritically. While McLean makes an effort to place the Cosmographia in context, the discussion largely focuses on Münster's text. Some pertinent and informative analogies and comparisons are lacking – for example, to other major illustrated printing enterprises of the time (Vesalius), or encyclopedic works (Gessner), or more generally to the antiquarian culture that flourished at the time. A more sustained analysis of the Cosmographia in relation to Münster's own works – mainly the concurrent Ptolemy editions – would have helped an understanding of the project more fully. Unfortunately the text is marred by too many factual, editorial and typographical slips (for example Francis instead of Roger Bacon, p. 32; Sacrobocus [sic] influenced by Apian, p. 124; repeated citations, pp. 50/95), and bears the marks of an overly rushed production. Overall, however, McLean makes a solid contribution to our understanding of the geographical culture of sixteenth-century Europe and of Münster's world in particular.