Claudii Ptholemaei Alexandrini liber geographiae cum tabulis et universali figura et cum additione locorum quae a recentioribus reperta sunt diligenti cura emendatus et impressus
Venice: Iacobus Pentius de Leucho, 20 March 1511 (colophon). First Venetian edition.
Folio in 6s (16 5/16” x 11”, 414mm x 281mm): ✠4 A8 B-H6 I8 [$3 signed; –✠1, I1]. 62 leaves, pp. [8] (title, verse by Giovanni Aurelio Augurello, dedication by Sylvanus to Andrea Matteo Acquaviva Duke of Atri, 4pp. Sylvanus’ notes, table of contents), [116] (115pp. text, blank). With 28 woodcut double-page maps printed in red and black (all recto-verso with the exception of the final world map, which is the inner forme of its own leaf).
Bound in (perhaps later?) vellum over boards (the boards recovered in later vellum). On the spine, author and title (PTHOLEM/ TABULÆ/ GEOGRA) gilt to sheep. All edges of the text-block red.
Boards recovered in later vellum, coming up at the corners and along the lower edge of the back board. Damp-stain to the upper and lower gutters, mostly mild but moderate in places. Some shaving to the maps: at the fore-edge of the first world map, the “quinta Europae tabula” and the “tertia Africae;” the lower scale of “prima Europae” and “sexta Europae;” to the upper figural surrounds of “secunda Africae,” “prima Asiae,” secunda Asiae,” “nona Asiae” and “decima Asiae;” and to the upper, lower and fore-edges of the final world map. A little worming to the gutter of the world map, with some splits along the upper fold. Ink marginalia to B1r-B2r, B8v, C3v, C4r, I1r, I8v (a circular diagram without marking to a blank page) and to the maps of France (“tertia Europae tabula”) and Italy (“sexta Europae tabula;” pasted correction slips swapping “Obononia” (Bologna) and “mutina” (Modena)). Bookseller’s ticket of “Librairie Fl. Tulkens Bruxelles” to the front paste-down.
Claudius Ptolemaeus (usually anglicized to Ptolemy) was a second-century philosopher living in Roman Alexandria in Egypt. In the Greek tradition (Ptolemy wrote in Greek, which was the administrative language of the Roman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean), philosophy — the love of wisdom — bridged what we now divide into the humanities and the sciences; he was a mathematician, natural scientist and geographer-astronomer. No manuscripts of the Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις (Geographical Guidance) survive from before the XIIIc, but some XIIIc examples survive with maps that bear some relation to those Ptolemy himself drew. Thus, with the exception of some excavated carved maps, Ptolemy is the source for ancient cartography as well as its culmination.
In the XVc, the Geographia was the core of ancient knowledge of the world, extending from the Canary Islands in the West to China in the East (though not quite to the Pacific), Scandinavia in the North and beyond the Horn of Africa to the South. It was crucial to explorers; Columbus expected to find the East Indies because of Ptolemy’s calculations and assertions about longitude. As the world expanded beyond its ancient bounds, discoveries were integrated into the Ptolemaic maps, distinct with their trapezoidal frames.
The trio responsible for the production of this edition — Bernardus Sylvanus (Bernardo Silvani) of Eboli edited the work (though Shirley credits the (world) maps to him, Giacopo Angeli (Jacobus or Giacomo, Angelus or d’Angeli; fl. ca. 1360–1410) translated the Greek into Latin and Jacobus Pentius de Leucho (Giacomo or Giacopo, Pencio or Penzio; ca. 1486–1530) was its printer-publisher — had no particular connection to Venice. Indeed, the work is anomalous in a city that was otherwise the cradle of Renaissance printing; Shirley calls it an “isolated example of Venetian cartographic enterprise” (sub 31). That said, La Serenissima has left her mark on the volume; it is the first atlas to print maps in red-and-black, the first to contain a cordiform projection and the first (or one of the first) to depict Japan. It is the second edition of Ptolemy — the 1507 Rome edition was the first — to contain a cartographic depiction of the New World.
An early reader(s?) has left marks of reading through the volume. There are many glosses of ancient place names, especially of the British Isles (e.g., Vectis is glossed “Wijgt,” B2r), of France (Olbia civitas as “Santropè”) and of Italy. There is a long marginalium at the foot of C4r (trans. at right), correcting the placement of various Celtic tribes (and reflected in the corresponding maps of France and Italy) by cross-reference with the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae of Robert Estienne (first published 1531):
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Alpium descriptio hic valde vitiata, et a Thesauro restituta, ut infra; nempe In Græis Alpibus Lepontinorum oscella In Penis Alpibus Centronorum forum Claudij, Axima In Cotijs Alpibus Segusinorum, Brigantium In Cotijs Alpibus Caturgidorum Eborodunù In litoreis Alpibus Nerusiorum Vintium In litores Alpibus Sutriorú Salinae |
The description of the Alps is here very corrupt, and has been corrected in the Thesaurus as below, namely: In the Graian Alps, Oscella[1] of the Lepontini In the Pennine Alps, Forum Claudii /Axima[2] of the Centronii In the Cottian Alps Brigantium[3] of the Segusinii In the Cottian Alps Eborodunum[4] of the Caturgidi In the Maritime Alps Vintium[5] of the Nerusii In the Maritime Alps Salinae[6] of the Sutrii |
The hand is perhaps XVIIc, judging by the letter-forms; it is perhaps reductive to suggest he lived in Southeast France or Northwest Italy, but there is nothing to supersede that suggestion.
Adams P 2218; Alden-Landis 511/8; Nordenskiöld 2.204; Phillips, Atlases 358; Shirley 31 & 32, Stevens, Ptolemy 43.
[1] Modern Domodossola in Piedmont.
[2] Modern Aime-la-Plagne in Savoie.
[3] Modern Briançon in Hautes-Alpes.
[4] Modern Embrun in Hautes-Alpes.
[5] Modern Vence in Alpes-Maritimes.
[6] Modern Castellane in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.
Item #JLR0528
Price: $142,500