First map in an edition of Ptolemy to name "America" in fine original colour
By PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius , 1525
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Geographicae enarrationis libri octo. Bilibaldo Pirckeymhero interprete. Annotationes Joannis de Regio Monte in errores commissos a Jacobo Angelo in translatione sua.

  • Author: PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius
  • Publication place: Argentoragi
  • Publisher: Johannes Grieningerus, communibus Johannis Koberger impensis excudebat. [Imprint from colophon: recto of leaf Q8]
  • Publication date: 1525.
  • Physical description: Folio atlas (390 by 265mm), title within ornamental woodcut border, and 50 woodcut maps (of which 48 are numbered) (27 double-page of the ancient world, 22 double-page maps of the modern world by Laurent Fries, and one full-page map of Lotharingia on the verso of map 46), ALL WITH FINE ORIGINAL COLOUR, most maps with descriptive text on verso enclosed within elaborate woodcut borders (said to be the work of Hans Holbein and Urs Graf), woodcut diagrams in the text, some dampstaining to head of gutter and upper margin, contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over oak boards, split to spine, lacking clasps.

    Collation: A-M(6), N(4), O(6), P(6), Q(8), a-e(6), f(4), [Colophon] 50 double-page woodcut maps.
  • Inventory reference: 10783

Notes

Fourth Strassburg edition. The text was translated by Wilibald Pirckheimer, using the notes of Johannes Regiomontanus, perhaps under the editorship of Johann Huttich; the ornamental woodblock designs on the reverse of the maps are attributed to Albrecht Dürer, who also contributed the woodblock of the armillary sphere. The present edition is the second one printed by Grüninger. However, all maps are printed by the woodblocks of the first Grüninger edition of 1522.

The woodcut maps in the trapezoid shape developed by the German cartographer Nicolaus Germanus (1420 – 1490) in 1460 comprise 27 maps according to Ptolemy as well as 23 “modern” maps (Tabula Moderna) according to the knowledge of the time.

The “modern section” was copied by Lorenz Fries, on a reduced format, from the maps prepared by Waldseemüller for the 1513 Strassburg Ptolemy, and accordingly contains the new maps of North America and the West Indies, Lorraine, Switzerland, Crete, North Africa, Southern Africa, Southern Asia and the World.

To that group Fries added three maps: South East Asia and the East Indies, China and Japan and a navigational map of the world. The two former are the first separate printed maps of the regions they depict.

The 50 woodcut maps, with the exception of “Quinta Asie Tabula” are from the same blocks as those of 1522 edition. Map 47 is single page on verso of map 46. Map 50, “Orbis typus universalis” by Laurentius Fries, is the first map in a Ptolemy in which the name “America” is used. Maps 28, 34, 49 and 50 relate more or less to America, and are described in a note to the preceding edition. The account of the discoveries of Columbus and others is on the back of Map 28. The dedication by Bilibaldus Pirckeymherus, dated at “Norenberge. Kalendis septembris. Anno Salutis nostre. M.D.XXIV.,” begins on the verso of the title and ends on the verso of folio 2. “Index Ptolemaei …” (with half-title within illustrated border): [68]p. at end.

Bibliography

  1. Phillips , Atlases 362
  2. Sabin 66482.
  3. Nordenskiold Collection 2:208

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