Beschreibung:

APIANUS, Petrus (1495-1552). Cosmographicus . Edited by Gemma Frisius. -- GEMMA Frisius, Reiner (1508-1555). Libellus de locorum describendorum ratione, & de eorum distantiis inveniendis . Antwerp: Joannes Grapheus for Arnold Birckman, February 1533. Woodcut vignette of terrestrial globe on title. Woodcut illustrations and diagrams, many full-page, those on C1v, C4v, H4r and O1r with volvelles, separately printed woodcut nocturnal components pasted onto O3r. Letterpress tables in the text. Woodcut initials, Grapheus's woodcut device on Q6r, Birckman's woodcut device on Q6v. (Light browning, occasional spotting and marking, light dampstaining affecting quires A-B, woodcut on O1r lacking moving parts.) JCB I, p.106 (with complete volvelles but lacking the applied manubrium cut on O3r); Harrisse Bibliotheca americana vetustissima 179; Van Ortroy Apian 27. [ Bound with :] STÖFFLER, Johann (1452-1531). Cosmographicae aliquot descriptiones . Edited by Johann Dryander. Marburg: Eucharius Cervicornus, June 1537. Woodcut title border. 5 folding woodcut plates. Woodcut initials and printer's device on E4v. (Lightly dampstained, causing superficial abrasion on B1r and tears in E3-4, the latter (errata leaf) with small losses, folding plates laid down and with tears on folds causing small losses.) Loosely-inserted folded leaf bearing an engraved astronomical diagram intended for educational use (Italian, 17th century). FIRST EDITION. Adams S-1885 (calling for only 4 folding plates). 2 works in one volume, 4° (206 x 150mm). Early Italian pasteboard covers, quires sewn through 2 vellum strips applied to spine, lettered in manuscript on the spine. Provenance : P1r of first work foliated in an early hand -- mid 20th-century bookseller's description loosely inserted. TWO IMPORTANT 16TH-CENTURY COSMOGRAPHICAL WORKS. The present copy of Apianus's Cosmographicus is the Birckman issue of the 1533 edition; it contains the text of Bontius's edition (which was also printed by Grapheus) and varies only in the publisher's details given on the title and colophon. The text of the 1533 edition is significant as the first to include Gemma Frisius's Libellus de locorum describendorum ratione (dated Antwerp, February 1533), in which he was 'the first to propose -- and illustrate -- the principle of triangulation as a means of carefully locating places and accurately mapping areas' (DSB V, p.349). Indeed, in Gemma Frisius's edition, 'the Cosmographia was one of the most popular texts of the time and was translated into all major European languages' (DSB I, p.179). Although lacking the components to one volvelle, this copy retains the two nocturnal components on O3r. Apianus's work is bound with Stöffler's Cosmographicae aliquot descriptiones , a rare posthumous text by the celebrated geographer and tutor of Melanchthon and Sebastian Münster (the author of Cosmographia , Basel: 1544); only the Broxbourne copy, which lacked all 5 folding plates, has been sold at auction since 1975.