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Hardcover. PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius (c.100-170). Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino, Tradotta di Greco nell'Idioma Volgare Italiano, da Girolamo Ruscelli, et hora nuovamente ampliata da Gioseffo Rosaccio. Venice: Heirs of Melchior Sessa, 1599. 2 parts in one volume. 4to., (9 5/8 x 6 6/8 inches). Woodcut device on general title-page (lower right-hand corner renewed) and sectional title-page for Espositioni et Introdottioni Universali di Ieronimo Ruscelli. 69 double-page engraved maps after Giacomo Gastaldi and others, including 27 maps of the Ancient World, and 42 maps of the Modern World, woodcut diagrams in the text, including some full-page, woodcut initials. 18th-century half calf, marbled paper boards (head and foot of the spine strengthened, worn). Provenance: with the near contemporary ownership inscription of Gio. Batta. MareSisi on the title-page; with the woodcut armorial library label of Ludovico Amorini Bolognini on the front paste-down Fourth revised and enlarged edition of Ruscelli's translation of Ptolemy, edited by Giuseppe Rosaccio, the second issue with the title-page dated 1598. With SIX ENTIRELY NEW MAPS, including Rosaccio's double-hemisphere world map (Shirley 217), and "America", being a second edition of Giovanni's Botero's scarce map of the Western Hemisphere, with a line visible around the continent, based on the work of Giovanni Lorenzo d'Anania published in Venice in 1582 (Burden 54), and Ortelius' map of America, and shows an unknown Southern continent attached to New Guinea. The other maps are reprinted from the earlier Ruscelli editions of 1561, 1562, 1564 and 1574, by Giulio and Livio Sanuto of Gastaldi's maps first published in Venice in 1548, with the addition of decorative motifs and new discoveries. Adams P-2237; Sabin 66507. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.

Hardcover. 3 parts in one volume, 4to., (9 2/8 x 6 4/8 inches). General title-page with woodcut device (ownership inscription excised from lower edge), sectional title-pages for Espositioni et Introdottioni Universali di Ieronimo Ruscelli and Discorso Universale di M. Gioseppe Moleto. 2 fine woodcut portraits of Ptolemy observing the heavens, 66 fine double-page engraved maps mounted on guards, including the world map Orbis Descriptio, woodcut diagrams in the text, including some full-page, woodcut initials (first gathering quite loose, some inoffensive wormtracks to guards). Early Italian patterned paper boards (a bit worn). Second edition of Ruscelli's Ptolemy, a reissue of the first of 1561, the 66 maps being printed from the same plates and with the same irregular numbering. These important maps are enlarged copies by Giulio and Livio Sanuto of Gastaldi's maps first published in Venice in 1548, except Universale novo, which was drawn on a new projection and renamed Orbis descriptio. Other notable maps include: "Septemtronalum partium nova tabula" , a reduced version of the Nicolo Zeno map of the North Atlantic Ocean of 1558 and including many fictitious islands; "Tierra Nueva", a map of the east coast of North America showing the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers; "Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova" showing the Yucatan as a peninsula; other maps of America are "Tierra Nova showing South America, "Brasil Nuova Tavola", "Isola Cuba Nova", and "Isola Spagnola Nova"; "India Tercera Nuova Tavola" shows the East Indies; and "Orbis Discriptio" the twin hemisphere new world map, which as Shirley reports, is the earliest of its kind to appear in an atlas, shows not only North and south America, but also the islands of New Guinea. Maps not found in the previous Gastaldi edition of 1548 are: Scandinavia (after Jacob Ziegler, 1532); Brasil (after Ramusio); the Arctic regions; South Africa; and a navigational chart of the World. BM/STC Italian, p.543; Phillips Atlases 373; Sabin 66504. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.

Hardcover. Folio (16 4/8 x 12 inches). Vignette title-page, reproducing 27 maps of the Codex Ebnerianus, a manuscript of Ptolemy's 'Geography' at the New York Public Library, prepared by Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, the Ruysch map of the world from the 1508 printed edition, and Laurent Fries' "new" world map from 1522, other illustrations in the text. Original publisher's half calf, cloth, gilt. Limited issue, number 157 of 250 numbered copies. Ptolemy's 'Geographia' was a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca 90-168 ad). He relied on the work of others, in particular an early geographer, Marinos of Tyre, and on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian Empire. He was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet (of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology). He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid. He died in Alexandria. The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolomy's "Geographia" date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482.

Hardcover. 1st Edition. 3 parts in one volume. 4to., (9 2/8 x 6 2/8 inches). Woodcut printer's devices on title-pages and at end of part 2, 64 engraved double-page maps mounted on guards, comprising 27 maps of the ancient world and 37 maps of the modern world with letterpress descriptive text on rectos, woodcut diagrams throughout, woodcut initials (first title-page supplied, and a bit short, some light, mostly marginal waterstaining throughout, front endpaper with wormtracks). Contemporary vellum over paste-board, title lettered in gilt on the spine (a bit marked); preserved in a modern red cloth clamshell box. Provenance: obscured contemporary Italian ownership inscription and ink library stamp offset onto front free endpaper from original title-page; replaced title-page with the ink library stamp of the convent of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna at the foot. First edition of Girolamo Ruscelli's Italian translation of Ptolemy's "Geography". Most of the maps are enlarged copies of the Gastaldi maps from the Venice 1548 edition made by Giulio and Livio Sanuto: notable maps include: "Septemtronalum partium nova tabula" , a reduced version of the Nicolo Zeno map of the North Atlantic Ocean of 1558 and including many ficticious islands; "Tierra Nueva", a map of the east coast of North America showing the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers; "Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova" showing the Yucatan as a peninsula; other maps of America are "Tierra Nova showing South America, "Brasil Nuova Tavola", "Isola Cuba Nova", and "Isola Spagnola Nova"; "India Tercera Nuova Tavola" shows the East Indies; and "Orbis Discriptio" the twin hemisphere new world map, which as Shirley reports, is the earliest of its kind to appear in an atlas, shows not only North and south America, but also the islands of New Guinea. Maps not found in the previous Gastaldi edition of 1548 are: Scandinavia (after Jacob Ziegler, 1532); Brasil (after Ramusio); the Arctic regions; South Africa; and a navigational chart of the World (Shirley 111). Adams P-2235; Alden and Landis 561/42; Burden 29, 30, and 31; Norderskiöld Collection 2:216; Phillips "Atlases" 371; Sabin 66503; Shirley 110 and 111. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.

Hardcover. 1st Edition. 2 parts in one volume. 4to., bound in 6s (12 x 8 inches). Two vignette title-pages. One full-page engraved double-hemisphere map of the world "Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio" by Girolamo Porro after Rumold Mercator to D1v, and 63 fine engraved half-page vignette maps, numerous woodcut diagrams and vignettes in text including two of the armillary sphere and woodcut initials. Contemporary vellum over paste-board, lettered in gilt on the spine. Provenance: with the 19th-century engraved armorial bookplate of the Bushnell family on the front paste-down. First edition in Italian, edited and corrected by Giovanni Antonio Magini and translated from his Latin edition of 1596, also printed in Venice, into Italian by Leonardo Cernoti. All the maps, 27 of the ancient world, and 36 of the modern world were first published in Magini's earlier Latin edition, except for Girolamo Porro's four small format world maps based on Valgrisi's 1561 edition. The double-hemisphere world map "Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio" is a reduction of Rumold Mercator's world map, and is described by Shirley as 'an exceptionally fine engraving in its own right'. The other three are after Mercator and Ortelius, each and the map of America in chapter XXXIIII (18 pges), show Chili with a distinctive bulge. Ptolemy's Geography, arguably the most influential cartographic account of the ancient world, was the point of reference for all Renaissance mapmakers. His compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca 90-168 ad). He relied on the work of others, in particular an early geographer, Marinos of Tyre, and on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian Empire. He was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet (of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology). He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid. He died in Alexandria. The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolomy's "Geographia" date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. The present edition, published at the end of the 16th century, reflects the most important discoveries of that era. Sabin 66506; Phillips, Atlases, 405; Adams M-118; Shirley 193-96 and page XXIX. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.

Hardcover. 8vo (6 4/8 x 4 2/8 inches). Decorative woodcut side-borders to title-page, fine woodcut portrait of Ptolemy observing the heavens, 60 fine double-page copper-engraved maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, including 2 world maps (Shirley 87 and 88), embellished with sea-monsters, mermaids, ships, wild and unusual animals such as elephants and leopards, descriptive letterpress text and map numbers on rectos and versos of maps, woodcut illustrations and diagrams throughout, initials, and Pederzano's large woodcut device on colophon leaf 2D7r and verso of final leaf (Vaccaro Marche p. 318, fig. 427). With blank 2D8 (front free endpaper laid down, preliminaries and first gathering close-cropped, some damp-staining to early leaves, lower margin of the first map and map 20 renewed). 20th-century half vellum patterned paper boards (extremities just touched). PROVENANCE: Near contemporary ownership inscription of Dr. P. Mario Corsi (?) on front free endpaper; 16th-century annotations to entry for Cyprus on verso of folio 152 with the date 1571, and the map of Cyprus annotated recording the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571. "THE VERY FIRST ATLAS OF THE NEW WORLD" (Nordenskiold). First edition in Italian of Ptolemy's Geographia, a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca. 90-168 AD). The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. However, these are all very large format atlases. This is the first small format atlas and therefore the first to be widely used by travelers. All maps of the present edition were engraved on copper by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565), Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century (Burden). Karrow has argued that Gastaldi's early contact with the celebrated geographical editor, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, and his involvement with the latter's work, Navigationi et Viaggi, prompted him to take to cartography as a full-time occupation. Gastaldi spent two years putting together the maps for Pietro Andrea Mattioli's new Italian translation of Ptolemy's geography. Although the colophon is dated 1547, Gastaldi's preface is dated 1548, and apart from the twenty-six Ptolemaic maps, Gastaldi included thirty-four modern maps. These latter were very influential, being entirely new works engraved on copper. Nodenskiöld states that 26 of the maps are Ptolemy's based on the woodcuts by Munster which illustrated the Basel edition of 1540, and the remaining 34 were after Gastaldi's own design. "This edition of Ptolemy's Geography was the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemuller's Geographiae of 1513 and the Abraham Ortelius Theatrum of 1570. "It was the first to contain maps of the American continent" (Burden). The seven maps relating to the Americas are the modern World map (map 59); "Carta marina", the first sea chart depicting the modern world (map 60); "Tierra nova", the first separate map of the South American Continent (map 54); "Nueva Hispania", the earliest separate map of the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and the present south-western United States (map 55); and "Tierra nueva [del Bacalaos]", the earliest individual map of the east coast of North America (map 56), showing the discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier. These last five maps are the earliest printed American regional maps. The work also includes the first separate map devoted to Arabia and the first reference to Singapore on a printed map. The translation by the celebrated botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) appears only in this edition; it was superseded by Girolamo Ruscelli's translation, which was first published in 1561 and frequently reprinted. REFERENCES: Adams P-2234; Burden 16-17; Harvard "Italian" 404; Nordenskiöld Collection 214; Phillips "Atlases" 369; Sabin 66502; Shirley "Atlases of the British Library" T.PTOL-9a and b.

Hardcover. 8vo (6 4/8 x 4 2/8 inches). Decorative woodcut side-borders to title-page (edges slightly chipped and laid down), fine woodcut portrait of Ptolemy observing the heavens, 60 double-page copper-engraved maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, including 2 world maps (Shirley 87 and 88), embellished with sea-monsters, mermaids, ships, wild and unusual animals such as elephants and leopards etc., woodcut illustrations and diagrams throughout, initials, and Pederzano's large woodcut device on colophon leaf 2D7r and verso of final leaf [Vaccaro Marche p.318, fig. 427]. With blank 2D8 (signatures to all but the first map erased by an early owner, many of the maps poorly inked, old dampstains and small rubbed patches to the first map which is laid down - at printing?- on correct test leaf, lower corner of map [35] "Prima d'Asiae" neatly excised, repaired tear to map [44] "Asia VI", repaired marginal tear to map [16] "Marches", scattered minor marginal tears or repairs, staining to map [50] "Calecut", i.e., Indian sub-peninsula). Modern vellum over pasteboards, yapp fore-edges, early manuscript title lettering to lower edge; modern blue cloth clamshell box. "THE VERY FIRST ATLAS OF THE NEW WORLD" (Nordenskiold). First edition in Italian of Ptolemy's Geographia, a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca. 90-168 AD). The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. However, these are all very large format atlases. This is the first small format atlas and therefore the first to be widely used by travelers. All maps of the present edition were engraved on copper by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565), Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century (Burden). Karrow has argued that Gastaldi's early contact with the celebrated geographical editor, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, and his involvement with the latter's work, Navigationi et Viaggi, prompted him to take to cartography as a full-time occupation. Gastaldi spent two years putting together the maps for Pietro Andrea Mattioli's new Italian translation of Ptolemy's geography. Although the colophon is dated 1547, Gastaldi's preface is dated 1548, and apart from the twenty-six Ptolemaic maps, Gastaldi included thirty-four modern maps. These latter were very influential, being entirely new works engraved on copper. Nodenskiöld states that 26 of the maps are Ptolemy's based on the woodcuts by Munster which illustrated the Basel edition of 1540, and the remaining 34 were after Gastaldi's own design. "This edition of Ptolemy's Geography was the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemuller's Geographiae of 1513 and the Abraham Ortelius Theatrum of 1570. "It was the first to contain maps of the American continent" (Burden). The seven maps relating to the Americas are the modern World map (map 59); "Carta marina", the first sea chart depicting the modern world (map 60); "Tierra nova", the first separate map of the South American Continent (map 54); "Nueva Hispania", the earliest separate map of the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and the present south-western United States (map 55); and "Tierra nueva [del Bacalaos]", the earliest individual map of the east coast of North America (map 56), showing the discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier. These last five maps are the earliest printed American regional maps. The work also includes the first separate map devoted to Arabia and the first reference to Singapore on a printed map. The translation by the celebrated botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) appears only in this edition; it was superseded by Girolamo Ruscelli's translation, which was first published in 1561 and frequently reprinted. REFERENCES: Adams P-2234; Burden 16-17; Harvard "Italian" 404; Nordenskiöld Collection 214; Phillips "Atlases" 369; Sabin 66502; Shirley "Atlases of the British L.

Hardcover. 8vo (6 2/8 x 4 inches). Decorative woodcut side-borders to title-page, fine woodcut portrait of Ptolemy observing the heavens, 60 fine double-page copper-engraved maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, including 2 world maps (Shirley 87 and 88), embellished with sea-monsters, mermaids, ships, wild and unusual animals such as elephants and leopards etc., descriptive letterpress text and map numbers on rectos and versos of maps, woodcut illustrations and diagrams throughout, initials, and Pederzano's large woodcut device on colophon leaf 2D7r and verso of final leaf [Vaccaro Marche p. 318, fig. 427] (lacking blank 2D8, lower margin of title-page expertly renewed, last leaf in facsimile, otherwise a BRIGHT AND ATTRACTIVE COPY). 20th-century full green morocco gilt, all edges gilt, by Leighton, with blind stamped supra libros of Sir William Stirling Maxwell in the center of each cover (extremities a little scuffed). PROVENANCE: Supra libros of Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818-1878), Scottish historical writer and politician. "THE VERY FIRST ATLAS OF THE NEW WORLD" (Nordenskiold). First edition in Italian of Ptolemy's Geographia, a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca. 90-168 AD). The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. However, these are all very large format atlases. This is the first small format atlas and therefore the first to be widely used by travelers. All maps of the present edition were engraved on copper by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565), Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century (Burden). Karrow has argued that Gastaldi's early contact with the celebrated geographical editor, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, and his involvement with the latter's work, Navigationi et Viaggi, prompted him to take to cartography as a full-time occupation. Gastaldi spent two years putting together the maps for Pietro Andrea Mattioli's new Italian translation of Ptolemy's geography. Although the colophon is dated 1547, Gastaldi's preface is dated 1548, and apart from the twenty-six Ptolemaic maps, Gastaldi included thirty-four modern maps. These latter were very influential, being entirely new works engraved on copper. Nodenskiöld states that 26 of the maps are Ptolemy's based on the woodcuts by Munster which illustrated the Basel edition of 1540, and the remaining 34 were after Gastaldi's own design. "This edition of Ptolemy's Geography was the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemuller's Geographiae of 1513 and the Abraham Ortelius Theatrum of 1570. "It was the first to contain maps of the American continent" (Burden). The seven maps relating to the Americas are the modern World map (map 59); "Carta marina", the first sea chart depicting the modern world (map 60); "Tierra nova", the first separate map of the South American Continent (map 54); "Nueva Hispania", the earliest separate map of the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and the present south-western United States (map 55); and "Tierra nueva [del Bacalaos]", the earliest individual map of the east coast of North America (map 56), showing the discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier. These last five maps are the earliest printed American regional maps. The work also includes the first separate map devoted to Arabia and the first reference to Singapore on a printed map. The translation by the celebrated botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) appears only in this edition; it was superseded by Girolamo Ruscelli's translation, which was first published in 1561 and frequently reprinted. REFERENCES: Adams P-2234; Burden 16-17; Harvard "Italian" 404; Nordenskiöld Collection 214; Phillips "Atlases" 369; Sabin 66502; Shirley "Atlases of the British Library" T.PTOL-9a and b.

Hardcover. 8vo (6-4/8 x 4-2/8 inches). Decorative woodcut side-borders to title-page, fine woodcut portrait of Ptolemy observing the heavens, 60 fine double-page copper-engraved maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, including 2 world maps (Shirley 87 and 88), embellished with sea-monsters, mermaids, ships, wild and unusual animals such as elephants and leopards etc., descriptive letterpress text and map numbers on rectos and versos of maps, woodcut illustrations and diagrams throughout, initials, and Pederzano's large woodcut device on colophon leaf 2D7r and verso of final leaf [Vaccaro Marche p.318, fig. 427]. With blank 2D8 (some occasional marginal soiling and spotting). Fine modern vellum over paste-boards, yapp fore-edges and green morocco lettering-piece on the spine by F.L. Wood. Provenance: Sir Leicester Harmsworth, his sale Sotheby's 9th of June 1952, lot 9239; anonymous sale Sotheby's 18th July 1961, lot 531; bought by Charles W. Traylen, Guildford, Surrey, for Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, Lord Wardington (1924-2005), Library of Important Atlases and Geographies, with his bookplate on the rear paste-down. "THE VERY FIRST ATLAS OF THE NEW WORLD" (Nordenskiold). First edition in Italian of Ptolemy's Geographia, a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca. 90-168 AD). The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. However, these are all very large format atlases. This is the first small format atlas and therefore the first to be widely used by travelers. All maps of the present edition were engraved on copper by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565), Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century (Burden). Karrow has argued that Gastaldi's early contact with the celebrated geographical editor, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, and his involvement with the latter's work, Navigationi et Viaggi, prompted him to take to cartography as a full-time occupation. Gastaldi spent two years putting together the maps for Pietro Andrea Mattioli's new Italian translation of Ptolemy's geography. Although the colophon is dated 1547, Gastaldi's preface is dated 1548, and apart from the twenty-six Ptolemaic maps, Gastaldi included thirty-four modern maps. These latter were very influential, being entirely new works engraved on copper. Nodenskiöld states that 26 of the maps are Ptolemy's based on the woodcuts by Munster which illustrated the Basel edition of 1540, and the remaining 34 were after Gastaldi's own design. "This edition of Ptolemy's Geography was the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemuller's Geographiae of 1513 and the Abraham Ortelius Theatrum of 1570. "It was the first to contain maps of the American continent" (Burden). The seven maps relating to the Americas are the modern World map (map 59); "Carta marina", the first sea chart depicting the modern world (map 60); "Tierra nova", the first separate map of the South American Continent (map 54); "Nueva Hispania", the earliest separate map of the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and the present south-western United States (map 55); and "Tierra nueva [del Bacalaos]", the earliest individual map of the east coast of North America (map 56), showing the discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier. These last five maps are the earliest printed American regional maps. The work also includes the first separate map devoted to Arabia and the first reference to Singapore on a printed map. The translation by the celebrated botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) appears only in this edition; it was superseded by Girolamo Ruscelli's translation, which was first published in 1561 and frequently reprinted. REFERENCES: Adams P-2234; Burden 16-17; Harvard "Italian" 404; Nordenskiöld Collection 214; Phillips "Atlases" 369; Sabin 66502; Shirley "Atlases of the British Library" T.PTOL-9a and b.

(26 ¼ x 20 ¼ inches framed) Double-page woodcut map with original hand-colour, slight damp staining to the upper margin slightly affecting the image. The first modern map of Israel published in Germany, 1482. Shows Palestine divided into 12 Tribes on both sides of the Jordan river, shown as a meandering thin line. The shore line runs from Sideon to Gaza. South of a fantasy Carmel Mountain there is a big island, called the Castle of the Pilgrims (Atlit of today), and a similar but smaller island north of Jaffa called Assur. The Carmel Mountain is misshapen. The map of Palestine is based upon maps by Petrus Vesconte, published by Marino Sanuto in c.1320. Vesconte was a Genoese cartographer and geographer who influenced Italian and Catalan mapmaking throughout the fourteenth and fifthteenth centuries. He was a pioneer in the field of portolan charts, navigational maps based on compass directions and estimated distances.

8vo (6 6/8 x 4 2/8 inches). Decorative woodcut side-borders to title-page, fine woodcut portrait of Ptolemy observing the heavens, 60 fine double-page copper-engraved maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, including 2 world maps (Shirley 87 and 88), embellished with sea-monsters, mermaids, ships, wild and unusual animals such as elephants and leopards, descriptive letterpress text and map numbers on rectos and versos of maps, woodcut illustrations and diagrams throughout, initials, and Pederzano's large woodcut device on colophon leaf 2D7r and verso of final leaf [Vaccaro Marche p.318, fig. 427]. With blank 2D8 (lacking the four leaves of index in the first signature, the first three leaves including title and blank tipped-in, two ownership inscriptions excised from title the whole backed with laid paper, resulting in minor gum stains to woodcut portrait of Ptolemy on proximate leaf, browning to sig. A, tear to top edge D7-E2, loss at lower corner of Y8, mild foxing and damp-staining throughout; maps with old restoration, some with later additions in pencil, centerfolds of many maps strengthened and restored, worming at upper gutter of no. 16-17 and 19-23 affecting maps, small hole to map 42 affecting "E" in the heading "ASIE, wormhole to h7-8, i.e. the final leaves, affecting a few words). 19th-century vellum over paste-board, title in manuscript on the spine, all edges blue. PROVENANCE: from the library of Bruce McKinney, founder of Americana Exchange/Rare Book Hub and bibliophile, on the front paste-down, his sale Bloomsbury Auctions, New York, 3rd December 2009, lot 24. "THE VERY FIRST ATLAS OF THE NEW WORLD" (Nordenskiold). First edition in Italian of Ptolemy's Geographia, a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca. 90-168 AD). The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. However, these are all very large format atlases. This is the first small format atlas and therefore the first to be widely used by travelers. All maps of the present edition were engraved on copper by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565), Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic. He sought the most up to date geographical information available and became one of the greatest cartographers of the sixteenth century" (Burden). Gastaldi spent two years putting together the maps for Pietro Andrea Mattioli's new Italian translation of Ptolemy's geography. Although the colophon is dated 1547, Gastaldi's preface is dated 1548, and apart from the twenty-six Ptolemaic maps, Gastaldi included thirty-four modern maps. These latter were very influential, being entirely new works engraved on copper. Nodenskiöld states that 26 of the maps are Ptolemy's based on the woodcuts by Munster which illustrated the Basel edition of 1540, and the remaining 34 were after Gastaldi's own design. "This edition of Ptolemy's Geography was the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemuller's Geographiae of 1513 and the Abraham Ortelius Theatrum of 1570. "It was the first to contain maps of the American continent" (Burden). The seven maps relating to the Americas are the modern World map (map 59); "Carta marina", the first sea chart depicting the modern world (map 60); "Tierra nova", the first separate map of the South American Continent (map 54); "Nueva Hispania", the earliest separate map of the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and the present south-western United States (map 55); and "Tierra nueva [del Bacalaos]", the earliest individual map of the east coast of North America (map 56), showing the discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier. These last five maps are the earliest printed American regional maps. The work also includes the first separate map devoted to Arabia and the first reference to Singapore on a printed map. The translation by the celebrated botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) appears only in this edition; it was s.

Single sheet, float-mounted and framed (18 2/8 x 23 6/8 inches). Double-page woodcut map of the world by Martin Waldseemuller, showing the modern discoveries, centred on Europe, Africa and Asia, but with the coastline of Brazil and the islands of Isabella (Cuba) and Spagnolla (Haiti/Dominican Republic) to the west, the title within the image across the top, and the whole decorated with extensive rhumb lines (the top margin and first half inch of the map supplied in facsimile, washed). One of the earliest obtainable maps of the world to show modern discoveries, from Ptolemy's "Geographie opus nouissima traductione e Grecorum archetypis castigatissime pressum", published in Strassburg by Johann Schott in 1513. This was the first modern atlas, prepared by Martin Waldseemuller, scholar-geographer from the small town of St. Die in Lorraine, using the translation of Mathias Ringmann. It is one of the most important editions of Ptolemy, containing many new regional maps: twenty new maps based on contemporary knowledge with a great deal of new information. "Orbis Typus Universalis" redraws the British Isles, India, Sri Lanka and Madagascar, and Greenland is shown as an elongated peninsular attached to the top of Scandinavia, however the "representation of the Americas is most rough and incomplete, as if Waldseemuller felt uncertain about the shape of the New World, South America is shown in part outline; north of it are the islands of "Isabella" (Cuba) and "Spagnolla" (Haiti/Dominican Republic)" (Shirley 35). In his introductory text to the atlas, Ringmann referrs to the "Charta autem Marina", derived from observations made by Christopher Columbus, or "The Admiral", as a major source of information for the coastline of the New World, although Alberto Cantino's portolan map dated 1502, based on the discoveries of Gaspar Corte Real, and Nicolo Caveri's of 1505, seem more likely candidates. This information is reflected in the "Orbis Typus Universalis" and in another map in the same atlas: the first map in an atlas entirely devoted to America, "Tabula terre nove", often called the "Admiral's map", after Columbus, as it references him within the coastline of Brazil. In "Orbis Typus Universalis" the landmass remains unnamed, perhaps in a vain attempt to reverse the notion that it should be called "America", as it previously appeared in Waldseemuller's large wall map of 1507. See Burden pages xix-xxii, and 3; Shirley 35.

Single sheet (16 x 22 4/8 inches, image size 11 x 10 2/8 inches). Fine woodcut map of the island of Taprobana, or Ceylon, surrounded by 19 imaginary islands, and erroneously located to the southwest of India, on one side of the sheet, the other being letterpress descriptions of the climate zones, with EXCEPTIONALLY FINE ORIGINAL HAND-COLOUR in full (central vertical fold, but not crossing the map). This beautiful woodcut map of Taprobana, was the final map in the second edition of Ptolemy's "Cosmographia", published in Ulm in 1486. The island was often overlarge because of its importance to the spice trade between Europe and Southeast Asia, and because of Marco Polo's false claim that the island had a circumference of 2400 miles. There are two mountain ranges that appear on the island, one running vertically in the north with two rivers flowing out of it, and another, perhaps the Knuckles Range, near the center of the island with three rivers emerging from it. Cities and settlements are located as well. The second Ulm edition of Ptolemy's "Cosmographia", was reprinted from Holle's first Ulm edition of 1482. In this edition Reger made certain additions: his Registrum alphabeticum, and an anonymous "De locis et mirabilibus mundi". They must have been popular as they were also inserted in the Rome editions of 1490 and 1507 and 1508. The text of Claudius Ptolemy's "Cosmographia" was translated into Latin from the original Greek by Jacobus Angelus and was first published, in Renaissance times, at Vicenza (1475), Bologna (1477) and Rome (1478). The sumptuous editions published at Ulm in 1482 and 1486, as here, however, far surpassed all earlier efforts and remain two of the most important publications in the history of cartography. They were the first redaction of the 'Geography' to be printed outside of Italy, the earliest atlas printed in Germany, the first to depart from the classical prototype to reflect post-antique discoveries, the first to be illustrated with woodcuts rather than engravings, and the first to contain hand-colored maps, the design and execution of which were ascribed to a named cartographer, and the first to incorporate the five modern maps by Nicolaus Germanus. The Ulm editions, moreover, were the first to depart from the classical prototype by expanding the atlas to reflect post-antique discoveries about the size and shape of the earth. To the canonical twenty-seven Ptolemaic maps were added five "modern maps" of Spain, France, Italy, the Holy Land and northern Europe. The world map is of particular interest as it is the first to be signed, by Johannes Schnitzer of Armsheim, who in trade mark fashion has reversed every capital N, and inadvertently provided two Tropics of Cancer. This map is the first to be based on Ptolemy's second projection, in which both parallels and meridians are shown curved to convey the sphericity of the earth. Schnitzer, furthermore, updated the Ptolemaic world picture by incorporating improvements that were probably based on a manuscript of the 1470s by Nicolaus Germanus (ca 1420-1490), a Benedictine monk of Reichenbach Abbey in Bavaria, who is depicted in the first illuminated letter of the atlas presenting his book to the dedicatee Pope Paul II. Claudius Ptolemy was an Alexandrine Greek, and a dominant figure in both astronomy and geography for more than 1500 years. "He compiled a mapmaker's manual usually referred to simply as the 'Geography'. He demonstrated how the globe could be projected on a plane surface, provided coordinates for over 8,000 places across his the Roman world, and expressed them in degrees of longitude and latitude. No maps drawn by Ptolemy himself are known to survive, but maps compiled from his instructions as outlined in his 'Geography' were circulated from about 1300. Signed by Author(s).

Single sheet (17 4/8 x 23 2/8 inches). FINE woodcut map of Pakistan, northwest India, showing the Ganges, Indus rivers, by Martin Waldseemüller (central vertical fold, tiny worn holes near the Indus dela). From the first modern atlas: "Geographie opus nouissima traductione e Grecorum archetypis castigatissime pressum", prepared by Martin Waldseemuller using the translation of Mathias Ringmann. One of the most important editions of Ptolemy, it contained many new regional maps based on contemporary knowledge "unlike many of the alleged 'new' maps produced by earlier editors, [they] contained a great deal of new information, and in nearly every case they were decided improvements over anything that had been previously offered." ("The World Encompassed", 56), were included in addition to the traditional body of twenty-seven Ptolemaic maps derived from the 1482 Ulm edition (or possibly from the manuscript atlas of Nicolaus Germanus that served as source for the latter). Schott's edition while initiated by the most famous of all early sixteenth-century cosmographers, Martin Waldseemuller and his associate Mathias Ringmann, partly at the expense of Duke Rene of Lorraine, was brought to completion by Jacobus Eszler and Georgius Ubelin. Claudius Ptolemy was an Alexandrine Greek, and a dominant figure in both astronomy and geography for more than 1500 years. "He compiled a mapmaker's manual usually referred to simply as the 'Geography'. He demonstrated how the globe could be projected on a plane surface, provided coordinates for over 8,000 places across his the Roman world, and expressed them in degrees of longitude and latitude. No maps drawn by Ptolemy himself are known to survive, but maps compiled from his instructions as outlined in his 'Geography' were circulated from about 1300.

Single sheet (17 4/8 x 23 inches). FINE woodcut map of India, by Martin Waldseemüller, WITH ORIGINAL HAND-COLOUR wash in full, and as such EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, showing the entire region of southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Burma, India, the Malay Peninsula and Thailand, with the Ganges River in the west, "Sina" (China) in the east, and southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and China Sea (central vertical fold strengthened on the verso with archival tissue). From the first modern atlas: "Geographie opus nouissima traductione e Grecorum archetypis castigatissime pressum", prepared by Martin Waldseemuller using the translation of Mathias Ringmann. One of the most important editions of Ptolemy, it contained many new regional maps based on contemporary knowledge "unlike many of the alleged 'new' maps produced by earlier editors, [they] contained a great deal of new information, and in nearly every case they were decided improvements over anything that had been previously offered." ("The World Encompassed", 56), were included in addition to the traditional body of twenty-seven Ptolemaic maps derived from the 1482 Ulm edition (or possibly from the manuscript atlas of Nicolaus Germanus that served as source for the latter). Schott's edition while initiated by the most famous of all early sixteenth-century cosmographers, Martin Waldseemuller and his associate Mathias Ringmann, partly at the expense of Duke Rene of Lorraine, was brought to completion by Jacobus Eszler and Georgius Ubelin. Claudius Ptolemy was an Alexandrine Greek, and a dominant figure in both astronomy and geography for more than 1500 years. "He compiled a mapmaker's manual usually referred to simply as the 'Geography'. He demonstrated how the globe could be projected on a plane surface, provided coordinates for over 8,000 places across his the Roman world, and expressed them in degrees of longitude and latitude. No maps drawn by Ptolemy himself are known to survive, but maps compiled from his instructions as outlined in his 'Geography' were circulated from about 1300.

1st Edition. 2 parts in one volume. 4to., bound in 6s (12 x 8 4/8 inches). Two vignette title-pages. One full-page engraved double-hemisphere map of the world "Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio" by Girolamo Porro after Rumold Mercator to D1v, and 63 fine engraved half-page vignette maps, numerous woodcut diagrams and vignettes in text including two of the armillary sphere and woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum (torn without loss at the head of the spine). Provenance: early notes to the front free endpaper. First edition in Italian, edited and corrected by Giovanni Antonio Magini and translated from his Latin edition of 1596, also printed in Venice, into Italian by Leonardo Cernoti. All the maps, 27 of the ancient world, and 36 of the modern world were first published in Magini's earlier Latin edition, except for Girolamo Porro's four small format world maps based on Valgrisi's 1561 edition. The double-hemisphere world map "Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio" is a reduction of Rumold Mercator's world map, and is described by Shirley as 'an exceptionally fine engraving in its own right'. The other three are after Mercator and Ortelius, each and the map of America in chapter XXXIIII (18 pges), show Chili with a distinctive bulge. Ptolemy's Geography, arguably the most influential cartographic account of the ancient world, was the point of reference for all Renaissance mapmakers. His compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca 90-168 ad). He relied on the work of others, in particular an early geographer, Marinos of Tyre, and on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian Empire. He was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet (of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology). He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid. He died in Alexandria. The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolomy's "Geographia" date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. The present edition, published at the end of the 16th century, reflects the most important discoveries of that era. Sabin 66506; Phillips, Atlases, 405; Adams M-118; Shirley 193-96 and page XXIX. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.

8vo (6 4/8 x 4 2/8 inches). Decorative woodcut side-borders to title-page, fine woodcut portrait of Ptolemy observing the heavens, 60 fine double-page copper-engraved maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, including 2 world maps (Shirley 87 and 88), embellished with sea-monsters, mermaids, ships, wild and unusual animals such as elephants and leopards etc., descriptive letterpress text and map numbers on rectos and versos of maps, woodcut illustrations and diagrams throughout, initials, and Pederzano's large woodcut device on colophon leaf 2D7r and verso of final leaf [Vaccaro Marche p.318, fig. 427]. With blank 2D8. Contemporary Italian vellum over paste-board, tan morocco lettering-piece on the spine. PROVENANCE: 17th-century shelf-mark on the front paste-down, bookplate removed; Francis Anthony Benevento II, his sale "Important Maps and Atlases", 6th May 2010, lot 1. "THE VERY FIRST ATLAS OF THE NEW WORLD" (Nordenskiold). First edition in Italian of Ptolemy's Geographia, a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca. 90-168 AD). The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. However, these are all very large format atlases. This is the first small format atlas and therefore the first to be widely used by travelers. All maps of the present edition were engraved on copper by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565), Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century (Burden). Karrow has argued that Gastaldi's early contact with the celebrated geographical editor, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, and his involvement with the latter's work, Navigationi et Viaggi, prompted him to take to cartography as a full-time occupation. Gastaldi spent two years putting together the maps for Pietro Andrea Mattioli's new Italian translation of Ptolemy's geography. Although the colophon is dated 1547, Gastaldi's preface is dated 1548, and apart from the twenty-six Ptolemaic maps, Gastaldi included thirty-four modern maps. These latter were very influential, being entirely new works engraved on copper. Nodenskiöld states that 26 of the maps are Ptolemy's based on the woodcuts by Munster which illustrated the Basel edition of 1540, and the remaining 34 were after Gastaldi's own design. "This edition of Ptolemy's Geography was the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemuller's Geographiae of 1513 and the Abraham Ortelius Theatrum of 1570. "It was the first to contain maps of the American continent" (Burden). The seven maps relating to the Americas are the modern World map (map 59); "Carta marina", the first sea chart depicting the modern world (map 60); "Tierra nova", the first separate map of the South American Continent (map 54); "Nueva Hispania", the earliest separate map of the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and the present south-western United States (map 55); and "Tierra nueva [del Bacalaos]", the earliest individual map of the east coast of North America (map 56), showing the discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier. These last five maps are the earliest printed American regional maps. The work also includes the first separate map devoted to Arabia and the first reference to Singapore on a printed map. The translation by the celebrated botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) appears only in this edition; it was superseded by Girolamo Ruscelli's translation, which was first published in 1561 and frequently reprinted. REFERENCES: Adams P-2234; Burden 16-17; Harvard "Italian" 404; Nordenskiöld Collection 214; Phillips "Atlases" 369; Sabin 66502; Shirley "Atlases of the British Library" T.PTOL-9a and b.

1st Edition. 3 parts in one volume. 4to., (9 2/8 x 6 3/8 inches). Woodcut printer's devices on title-pages and at end of part 2, 64 engraved double-page maps mounted on guards, comprising 27 maps of the ancient world and 37 maps of the modern world with letterpress descriptive text on rectos, woodcut diagrams throughout, woodcut initials (new world maps 14 "Tabvola Nuova Della Marca Trivigiana" and 15 ". Marca D'Ancona" stained at plate mark, new world map 22 "Africa Nuova Tabvola" repaired on verso, some pale marginal staining, else BRIGHT). Early vellum over paste-board (renewed pastedown). An attractive copy of the first edition of Girolamo Ruscelli's Italian translation of Ptolemy's "Geography". Most of the maps are enlarged copies of the Gastaldi maps from the Venice 1548 edition made by Giulio and Livio Sanuto: notable maps include: "Septemtronalum partium nova tabula" , a reduced version of the Nicolo Zeno map of the North Atlantic Ocean of 1558 and including many ficticious islands; "Tierra Nueva", a map of the east coast of North America showing the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers; "Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova" showing the Yucatan as a peninsula; and "Orbis Discriptio" the twin hemisphere new world map, which as Shirley reports, is the earliest of its kind to appear in an atlas. Other maps not found in the previous Gastaldi edition of 1548 are: Scandinavia (after Jacob Ziegler, 1532); Brasil (after Ramusio); the Arctic regions; South Africa; and a navigational chart of the World (Shirley 111). Adams P-2235; Alden and Landis 561/42; Burden 29, 30, and 31; Norderskiöld Collection 2:216; Phillips "Atlases" 371; Sabin 66503; Shirley 110 and 111.

8vo (6 x 4 inches). Decorative woodcut side-borders to title-page (torn along lower edge with loss, soiled), fine woodcut portrait of Ptolemy observing the heavens, 60 fine double-page copper-engraved maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, including 2 world maps (Shirley 87 and 88), embellished with sea-monsters, mermaids, ships, wild and unusual animals such as elephants and leopards etc., the first four maps and first world map with delicate contemporary hand-coloring, descriptive letterpress text and map numbers on rectos and versos of maps, woodcut illustrations and diagrams throughout, initials, and Pederzano's large woodcut device on colophon leaf 2D7r and verso of final leaf [Vaccaro Marche p.318, fig. 427]. With blank 2D8 (lacking front free endpaper, +7-+8 and A1 repaired in the gutter, A1 and last leaf wormed, some light soiling and spotting). Contemporary Italian limp vellum, titled in manuscript on the spine (lightly soiled). PROVENANCE: Frequent contemporary annotations by Baldagaure Magui, particularly to the preliminaries in which Munster's name has been effaced, and to four maps; the later ownership inscriptions of "MB" on the front paste-down and the margins of some early leaves. "THE VERY FIRST ATLAS OF THE NEW WORLD" (Nordenskiold). First edition in Italian of Ptolemy's Geographia, a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca. 90-168 AD). The earliest known manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia date to about 1300. The first printed version was published in 1477, then 1488, and in Ulm in 1482. However, these are all very large format atlases. This is the first small format atlas and therefore the first to be widely used by travelers. All maps of the present edition were engraved on copper by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565), Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century (Burden). Karrow has argued that Gastaldi's early contact with the celebrated geographical editor, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, and his involvement with the latter's work, Navigationi et Viaggi, prompted him to take to cartography as a full-time occupation. Gastaldi spent two years putting together the maps for Pietro Andrea Mattioli's new Italian translation of Ptolemy's geography. Although the colophon is dated 1547, Gastaldi's preface is dated 1548, and apart from the twenty-six Ptolemaic maps, Gastaldi included thirty-four modern maps. These latter were very influential, being entirely new works engraved on copper. Nodenskiöld states that 26 of the maps are Ptolemy's based on the woodcuts by Munster which illustrated the Basel edition of 1540, and the remaining 34 were after Gastaldi's own design. "This edition of Ptolemy's Geography was the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemuller's Geographiae of 1513 and the Abraham Ortelius Theatrum of 1570. "It was the first to contain maps of the American continent" (Burden). The seven maps relating to the Americas are the modern World map (map 59); "Carta marina", the first sea chart depicting the modern world (map 60); "Tierra nova", the first separate map of the South American Continent (map 54); "Nueva Hispania", the earliest separate map of the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and the present south-western United States (map 55); and "Tierra nueva [del Bacalaos]", the earliest individual map of the east coast of North America (map 56), showing the discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier. These last five maps are the earliest printed American regional maps. The work also includes the first separate map devoted to Arabia and the first reference to Singapore on a printed map. The translation by the celebrated botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) appears only in this edition; it was superseded by Girolamo Ruscelli's translation, which was first published in 1561 and frequently reprinted. REFERENCES: Adams P-2234; Burden 16-17; Harvard "Italian" 404; Nordenskiöld Collection 214; Phillips "Atlases".