Beschreibung:

PTOLEMAEUS, CLAUDIUS (ca. 100-ca. 170). Liber geographiae cum tabulis et universali figura . Venice: Jacobus Pentius de Leucho, 20 March 1511. 2° (423 x 285 mm). Title printed in red, text mostly in double column printed in red and black, 28 double-page woodcut maps printed in red and black, including two world maps, 10 maps of Europe, 4 of Africa, and 12 of Asia, all but the cordiform world map printed on both rectos and versos, 4 woodcut diagrams in the text, initial spaces with guide letters. The maps bound in after the 4 preliminary leaves and before Book I. (Title soiled, a bit wormed, and marginally repaired, one or two small repairs slightly affecting text on verso, first quire rehinged, some staining and soiling, especially to first few maps, scattered light dampstaining, occasional marginal tears or repairs to maps and text, cordiform world map with gutters reinforced on verso, a few marginal repairs, one catching a letter at top, and one tiny hole at gutter, 6th and 7th Europe maps with small marginal tears catching the image, 1st Europe and 12th Asia maps with clean tears along gutters, 4 maps with captions or border decoration slightly shaved, tear to fol. A1.) Contemporary North German dark brown blind-tooled goatskin over wooden boards, upper cover with original brass center- and cornerpiece bosses, the cornerpieces with chased lettering "Ave Maria" and "Maria Plena", pair of original leather and brass clasps and catches (old rebacking, spine split and cracked, covers rubbed with a few small scrapes); modern morocco-backed slipcase. Provenance : place names added in a 17th or 18th-century hand to a few maps; shelfmark numbers in blue pencil on title-page. First Venetian edition of Ptolemy, adapted by Bernardus Sylvanus of Eboli from the Latin translation by Jacobus Angelus. The edition is significant for its innovations in both geography and printing techniques. The maps represent the earliest known example of two-color printing in cartography, and the only known two-color edition of the Geography , the principal regional names being printed in red in upper case, the lesser names and names of towns in black in lower case, all in letterpress type set into the woodblocks. Recent scholarship has shown that the names were very likely printed on single blocks or slugs using a stereotype technique (see David Woodward's introduction to the facsimile edition of the Sylvanus world map [Chicago: Speculum Orbis Press, 1983], and his article, "Some evidence for the use of stereotyping on Peter Apian's world map of 1530," Imago mundi , 1970). Although the maps are arranged in the traditional Ptolemaic order, Sylvanus attempted to modify them in accord with recent discoveries, with somewhat limited success, partly because he relied on already outdated information, but also because "the cartography of the new lands and seas was not a high priority for Sylvano... [who] was clearly more interested in correcting Ptolemy in the Old World" (Woodward, art. cit.). The new cordiform map of the world, the first in this projection, is the most important cartographically: it is the first printed map to show Japan and the second to show America, in the form of a large southern "Terra Sanctae Crucis", two islands labeled "Terra cubae"and "Ispaniarum insu", and a distant northeastern "Terra laboratorus". The binding of this copy was probably executed in east Prussia, possibly in Danzig or Königsberg. Three of the tools are reproduced in Schunke, Schwenke-Sammlung : Rautengerank 19 (Danzig Mosaik I), Lilie 211 (Danzig Mosaik II), and Blattwerk 223 (Königsberg Marien-Schriftband). Adams P-2218; Alden & Landis 511/8; Essling 1699; Harrisse 68; Phillips Atlases 358; Sabin 66477; Shirley 31-32; The World Encompassed 55.