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Folio (12 x 8 in.; 30.5 x 20.3 cm). Letterpress title within historiated woodcut border, double-page woodcut map "Tipus Orbis Universalis Iuxta Ptolomei Cosmographi Traditionem et Americi Vespucii Aliorunque Lustrationes" by Peter Apian dated 1520 (Shirley 45), bound between the text and the index, text of the Polyhistor surrounded by the Enarrationes, three woodcut initials, woodcut device of Lucas Alantse on colophon leaf F4r, printer's device on cc3v. Some text browning, occasionally more pronounced, marginal staining in gutters of quires o and p, a bit of finger soiling in lower margins, the map with very slight spotting and right margin shaved, cropping the caption "Oriens"). [Bound with:] MELA, Pomponius (fl. ca. 43 AD) - VADIANUS, Joachim [or Von Watt (1484-1551)], ed. and comm. Libri de situ orbis tres, adiectis Ioachimi Vadiani Helvetii in eosdem Scholiis; addita quoque in Geographia Catechesi: & Epistola Vadiani ad Agricola digna lectu. [Colophon:] Vienna: Johannes Singrenius for Lucasa Alantse, May 1518 Folio (12 x 8 in.; 30.5 x 20.3 cm). Letterpress title within a woodcut border of allegorical figures on the arts, text with commentary surround, woodcut initials, woodcut device of Lucas Alantse on colophon leaf O3v; some marginal dampstaining and text browning, leaves c3 and e3 with lower right corners torn away, tear to inner margin of k1. The two works bound together in contemporary limp vellum, sewn on three pairs of pink tawed deerskin thongs, early ink title and traces of early manuscript paper label on spine, evidence of fore-edge ties, some restoration to covers, the vellum cockled. Cloth folding case. (64V1H) TWO CLOSELY RELATED EDITIONS FROM THE SAME VIENNESE PRESS, BOTH HIGHLY IMPORTANT AMERICANA, PRESERVED IN THEIR ORIGINAL SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BINDING. Solinus's compilation of the wonders of the natural world was largely borrowed from the geography of Pomponius Mela and from Pliny the elder's Natural History. Arranged geographically, the work was cited by early medieval authorities such as Isidorus and Bede. Of the numerous editions that followed its first appearance in print (1473), the present edition edited by the Viennese humanist Johannes Camers is prized above all others for the map of the world that illustrates it. The cartographer and cosmographer Peter Apian based his map on the 1507 woodcut wall-map of Waldseemüller, in which the new southern continent was named "America." Apian's map is modeled after Waldseemüller's-not only in its cordiform shape but also in geographical detail, including some errors, some of which derived from Ptolemy. It is signed with the publisher's monogram, as well as with the initials of Camers (or Kamers) and Laurent Fries, the woodcutter. First edition with Vadianus's commentary and one of the most desirable editions of Pomponius Mela, the first-century Roman geographer to the courts of Caligula and Claudius, whose geographic treatise contains the earliest mentions of the Baltic Sea ("Sinus Codanus") and the Orkney Islands ("Orcades"), Vadianus's commentary contains several references to Vespucci and the discoveries of the Spanish and Portuguese explorers, and is the first of several editions to append his famous letter to the Swiss humanist Rudolf Agricola. First published as a pamphlet in 1515, the letter elucidates the geographical problems raised by the recent discovery of the continent of America, supporting Waldseemüller's suggestion to name the new continent "America" after Vespucci (fol. 124v: "ex recentior[um] inquisitione, si Americam a Vesputio repertam.") More widely distributed than the 1515 pamphlet, "this edition.undoubtedly contributed to spread the name 'America'" (Borba de Moraes). PROVENANCE: Contemporary ownership inscription on front turn-in (partially effaced and illegible) REFERENCES: Solinus: Adams A-1391; Burden, The Mapping of North America, p. xxv, plate xii; Alden/European Americana 520/25; Church 45; JCB 1:77; Sabin 86390; Shirley 45; Wol. Seller Inventory # 65ERM0049
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