Atlas portatilis, oder Compendieuse Vorstellung Der ganzen Welt, in einer kleinen cosmographie, Der grünenden Jugend zum Besten in XXXI saubern Land Charten, mit Einer kurzen Erläuterung Zum brittenmal verbessert herausgegeben
Nuremberg: Christoph Weigel, 1745. Third revised edition.
Octavo (6 15/16” x 4 3/8”, 177mm x 111mm): π2 )(4(–)(1) A–R8 S4(–S4) [$5 signed]. 144 leaves, pp. [4] (blank, double-page title, blank), 6pp. to the reader, 1–275, [3] (2pp. register, blank). With 31 double-page engraved plates finished in original hand color, 27 of which are maps.
Bound in mottled calf. On the spine, 5 raised bands. Title gilt to ochre lettering piece in the second panel. All edges of the text-block stained red.
Lower fore-corner of front board cornered in XIXc buckram. Worming to the backstrip and loss to the joint. Map of Denmark bound in upside-down. Paper library label to the 6th panel of the backstrip. Perished bookplate to the front pastedown. “Coll. Lenc. I.I.” inked to the title leaf, embossing of Dr. Michael D. Paul’s library collection to the title leaf.
Johann Christoph Weigel (1661–1726) was born in Bohemia and found success later in life as an engraver, publisher, art dealer, and instrument maker. Johann gained citizenship in Nuremberg alongside his older brother, Christoph Weigel, in 1701. The brothers set up their respective shops (Johann’s being located in the Neuen Gasse am Spitalkirchhof), with the elder Weigel providing maps for the famed geographer Johann Baptist Homann, and the younger Weigel producing largely decorative plates for a milieu of narrative publications. Perhaps seeing his brother's status quickly gaining, Weigel the younger pivoted towards maps and atlases. Atlas Portatilis saw three iterations with various collaborators. It first appeared in 1717, then in 1724 (Tooley says 1720), and finally 1745. This third, enlarged edition no longer mentions the author Johann Gottfried Gregorius (psued. Melissantes, 1685-1770), a popular consultant for atlases and cosmographies (most notably, Mallet’s Description of the Entire World Circle) who contributed to the text and was credited in the earlier editions. The first four engravings depict the global axes, the solar system, the zodiacs, and a graphic of cardinal direction (all would be familiar to a celestial savant, as they also appeared in Johann Rost's Atlas portatilis coelestis or “Taschenatlas,” which Weigel published in 1723). The lion’s share of the maps depict European regions, and continental maps of Africa, Asia, and the Americas hold up the rear.
Dr. Michael D. Paul was a nephrologist, an impassioned supporter of special collections, and a dedicated patron of dealers in fine printing and rare Judaica. Through his support, the Jewish Public Library launched the Dr. Michael D. Paul Rare Books Initiative, which worked to bring its 1,500 rare texts to the public through visits to secondary schools, community centers, libraries, and synagogues. In memoriam for Dr. Paul, JPL’s director, Eddie Paul, aptly summarized the collector’s life and work, writing, “Kidneys filter and clear toxins from the blood; books help to clarify and filter the detritus the world throws at the imagination.” The present example was lot 79 in Kestenbaum & Company's sale of Dr. Paul's library on March 5th, 2026.
Tooley pp. 658 (Weigel brothers, not this edition).
Cataloged by G.R. Murdock
Item #GRM0081
Price: $5,500