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Details
PTOLEMY, Claudius (2nd century). World map. "Insculptum est per Johanne Schnitzer de Artmszheim." Ulm: Lienhart Holle, 16 July 1482.
Woodcut world, image 400 x 558 mm (400 x 573 mm), woodcut inscriptions, the world map surrounded by 12 wind heads. (Trimmed closely touching inscription and woodcut border, light fading to a narrow strip within Europe and Africa, some faint staining a few minor wormholes.)
FIRST EDITION, the first woodcut version of a Ptolemaic world map and the first to be made outside Italy, based on a manuscript of Donnus Nicolaus Germanus of the 1470's. This is also the first printed map to be signed by the artist Johannes Schnitzer of Armsheim who is also known for his woodcut book Buch der Weisheit der alten Weisen, 1483. "The bold Germanic style and the gothic lettering have a distinctive decorative appeal…" (Shirley).
"This Ptolemy has always been sought by bibliophiles because of the bold decorative quality of the maps, the handsome typography and fine woodcut borders and initials" (The World Encompassed). Geographically, the Ulm Ptolemy "ventures to represent some features which update the Ptolemaic world picture and which were very probably based on a manuscript of Donnus Nicolaus Germanus of the 1470s" (Shirley). The map shows Scandinavia and Greenland for the first time in a Ptolemaic world map. Campbell The Earliest Printed Maps D43; Nebenzahl Atlas of Columbus and The Great Discoveries 1; Shirley, 10; The World Encompassed 37.
Woodcut world, image 400 x 558 mm (400 x 573 mm), woodcut inscriptions, the world map surrounded by 12 wind heads. (Trimmed closely touching inscription and woodcut border, light fading to a narrow strip within Europe and Africa, some faint staining a few minor wormholes.)
FIRST EDITION, the first woodcut version of a Ptolemaic world map and the first to be made outside Italy, based on a manuscript of Donnus Nicolaus Germanus of the 1470's. This is also the first printed map to be signed by the artist Johannes Schnitzer of Armsheim who is also known for his woodcut book Buch der Weisheit der alten Weisen, 1483. "The bold Germanic style and the gothic lettering have a distinctive decorative appeal…" (Shirley).
"This Ptolemy has always been sought by bibliophiles because of the bold decorative quality of the maps, the handsome typography and fine woodcut borders and initials" (The World Encompassed). Geographically, the Ulm Ptolemy "ventures to represent some features which update the Ptolemaic world picture and which were very probably based on a manuscript of Donnus Nicolaus Germanus of the 1470s" (Shirley). The map shows Scandinavia and Greenland for the first time in a Ptolemaic world map. Campbell The Earliest Printed Maps D43; Nebenzahl Atlas of Columbus and The Great Discoveries 1; Shirley, 10; The World Encompassed 37.