GEOGRAPHICAE ENARRATIONIS LIBRI OCTO BILIBALDO PIRCKEYMHERO INTERPRETE, ANNOTATIONES JOANNIS DE REGIO MONTE IN ERRORES COMMISSOS A JACOBO ANGELO IN TRANSLATIONE SUA by PTOLEMY, CLAUDIUS - 1525: Fine example of Fourth Strassburg edition of Ptolemy

Folio (405 x 265 cm). Printed title within elaborate woodcut border, 27 double-page maps of the ancient world, 22 double-page maps of the modern world, one full-page map of Lotharingia on verso of map 46, together 50 woodcut maps, most with Latin text on versos enclosed in elaborate woodcut borders, mounted on vellum guards, woodcut diagrams in the text (one by Dürer), including one full-page of an armillary sphere. Contemporary half blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, two clasps; lacking one strap., published 3 April, 1525.

Fine example of Fourth Strassburg edition of Ptolemy. The work includes the first printed map in an edition of Ptolemy to name America, the first printed map of Southeast Asia, and the first printed map of China.

The list of contributors is a veritable 'who's who' of German Renaissance publishing: the text was translated by Wilibald Pirckheimer using the notes of Johannes Regiomontanus, perhaps under the editorship of Johann Huttich; the ornamental woodblock designs on the reverse of the maps are attributed to Albrecht Dürer, who also contributed the woodblock of the armillary sphere. The present edition was printed for Johann Koberger by Johann Grüninger, using the woodblocks of the first Grüninger edition of 1522.

The present edition features 27 woodcut maps based on Ptolemy and 23 'modern' maps based on geographical knowledge of the time. All are in the trapezoid shape developed by the German cartographer Nicolaus Germanus in 1460.

The 'modern' section was copied by Lorenz Fries, in a reduced format, from maps prepared by Waldseemüller in 1513, and accordingly contains new maps of North America and the West Indies, Lorraine, Switzerland, Crete, North Africa, Southern Africa, Southern Asia and the World. To that group Fries added three maps: South East Asia and the East Indies, China and Japan, and a navigational map of the world. The two former are the first separate printed maps of the regions they depict.

With the exception of Quinta Asie Tabula, the maps are from the same blocks as those of the 1522 edition. Map 47 is single page on verso of map 46. Map 50, Orbis typus universalis by Laurentius Fries, is the first map in a Ptolemy in which the name America is used. The account of the discoveries of Columbus and others is on the back of Map 28. The dedication by Bilibaldus Pirckeymherus, dated at Norenberge. Kalendis septembris. Anno Salutis nostre. M.D.XXIV., begins on the verso of the title and ends on the verso of folio 2. Index Ptolemaei (with half-title within illustrated border): [68] p. at end.