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Atlases from a Private Swiss Collection
[PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius (c.100–c.178)]
Cosmographia. Translated from Greek into Latin by Jacobus Angelus (fl. early 15th century). Edited by Nicolaus Germanus (c.1420-c.1490). Johann Reger (d. after 1499). [Ulm: Johann Reger for Justus de Albano, 21 July 1486.]
Details
[PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius (c.100–c.178)]
Cosmographia. Translated from Greek into Latin by Jacobus Angelus (fl. early 15th century). Edited by Nicolaus Germanus (c.1420-c.1490). Johann Reger (d. after 1499). [Ulm: Johann Reger for Justus de Albano, 21 July 1486.]
A collection of splendidly coloured maps from the second Ulm edition of Ptolemy. These maps are the reworking of the Ptolemaic corpus by Nicolaus Germanus, a German cartographer whose reworkings survive in three recensions. The 1482 Ulm Ptolemy reproduces the third, revised recension, and thus represents Nicolaus's most mature work (Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, p.124). Johannes of Armsheim cut the woodblocks for the maps and signed his name at the top of the world map, making it 'the earliest datable printed map to bear a signature' (Campbell, p.137). ‘Shortly after publication [of the 1482 edition] Leinhart Holle went bankrupt. His stock was taken over by Johann Reger who, four years later in 1486, put out a second edition with a printing of about 1000 copies’ (Shirley). This second Ulm edition reused the same blocks from the first edition without alteration, with the exception of the addition of titles to the blank upper borders. These titles employ the distinctive and idiosyncratic hall-mark of the reversed ‘N’ which can be attributed to Armsheim. BMC II, 540; Campbell Earliest Maps, 179-210; BSB-Ink P-860; Goff P-1084; HC *13540; The World Encompassed 37; Shirley 10 (world map).
Royal folio (420 x 580mm). 29 woodcut maps cut by Johannes of Armsheim after Nicolaus Germanus (only, of 32), all but one double-page and all finely coloured by a contemporary hand, all but four (world map, modern maps of France, Scandinavia, and the Holy Land) with letterpress text on rectos, all mounted on modern card and housed in a modern green cloth portfolio with slipcase (lacking ‘Prima Europe Tabula’ [Great Britain and Ireland], ‘Tabula Moderna Hispaniae’ [modern map of Spain and Portugal] and ‘Undecima Asie Tabula’ (India), map ‘Tabula Moderna Francie’ without title in headline and possibly an earlier 1482 issue, world map with a 70mm tear into image without loss and other tears with some large crude repairs on verso utilising old paper, maps with variable staining mostly confined to margins, a few marginal repairs, all maps with vertical centre creasefolds and with varying degrees of wear along fold, to some worming to maps towards end with last few more severely affected).
Cosmographia. Translated from Greek into Latin by Jacobus Angelus (fl. early 15th century). Edited by Nicolaus Germanus (c.1420-c.1490). Johann Reger (d. after 1499). [Ulm: Johann Reger for Justus de Albano, 21 July 1486.]
A collection of splendidly coloured maps from the second Ulm edition of Ptolemy. These maps are the reworking of the Ptolemaic corpus by Nicolaus Germanus, a German cartographer whose reworkings survive in three recensions. The 1482 Ulm Ptolemy reproduces the third, revised recension, and thus represents Nicolaus's most mature work (Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, p.124). Johannes of Armsheim cut the woodblocks for the maps and signed his name at the top of the world map, making it 'the earliest datable printed map to bear a signature' (Campbell, p.137). ‘Shortly after publication [of the 1482 edition] Leinhart Holle went bankrupt. His stock was taken over by Johann Reger who, four years later in 1486, put out a second edition with a printing of about 1000 copies’ (Shirley). This second Ulm edition reused the same blocks from the first edition without alteration, with the exception of the addition of titles to the blank upper borders. These titles employ the distinctive and idiosyncratic hall-mark of the reversed ‘N’ which can be attributed to Armsheim. BMC II, 540; Campbell Earliest Maps, 179-210; BSB-Ink P-860; Goff P-1084; HC *13540; The World Encompassed 37; Shirley 10 (world map).
Royal folio (420 x 580mm). 29 woodcut maps cut by Johannes of Armsheim after Nicolaus Germanus (only, of 32), all but one double-page and all finely coloured by a contemporary hand, all but four (world map, modern maps of France, Scandinavia, and the Holy Land) with letterpress text on rectos, all mounted on modern card and housed in a modern green cloth portfolio with slipcase (lacking ‘Prima Europe Tabula’ [Great Britain and Ireland], ‘Tabula Moderna Hispaniae’ [modern map of Spain and Portugal] and ‘Undecima Asie Tabula’ (India), map ‘Tabula Moderna Francie’ without title in headline and possibly an earlier 1482 issue, world map with a 70mm tear into image without loss and other tears with some large crude repairs on verso utilising old paper, maps with variable staining mostly confined to margins, a few marginal repairs, all maps with vertical centre creasefolds and with varying degrees of wear along fold, to some worming to maps towards end with last few more severely affected).
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts