Dupont Copy of 1513 Ptolemy's Geographie

PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius (100-170 AD). Geographie opus novissima traductione e Graecorum archtypis castigatissme pressum. [Colophin:] Strassburg: Johann Schott, 1513. Guidance: Sotheby?s London, 2006 - $409,739
Folio (18 x 12 1/8 inches). 47 woodcut maps of which all but 2 are double-page, the final map of Lorraine printed in three colors, includes the variant map of Switzerland caption "Tabula nova Heremi Helvetiorum," woodcut text diagrams, extensive contemporary marginalia in two hands; bottom portion of title renewed with 12 lines on verso supplied in excellent penwork facsimile, first two leaves a bit shorter at fore-edge, mostly marginal worming and minor tears in first few leaves repaired, occasional small sports on maps, mended wormholes and marginal tear on maps sometimes touching borders, repaired tears affecting image in 3 maps (Italy, Switzerland & upper Rhineland), lower blank portion of last leaf renewed, lacking final blank leaf. Contemporary blind-tooled calf, clasps and catches; rebacked, endpapers renewed, some repaired scuffmarks and worming. Brown cloth drop box.
Provenance: Pierre S. Dupont III (his sale, Christie's NY, 8 October 1991, lot 214).
FIRST MODERN ATLAS AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EDITIONS OF PTOLEMY WITH MANY NEW REGIONAL MAPS
The atlas was prepared by Martin Waldseemuller, the most famous of all early sixteenth-century cosmographers and his associate Mathias Ringmann, to be completed by Jacobus Eszler and George Ubelin. In addition to the tradition body of twenty-seven Ptolemaic maps, derived from the 1482 Ulm edition, the atlas contains twenty new maps based on contemporary knowledge. Among these is the FIRST MAP IN AN ATLAS ENTIRELY DEVOTED TO AMERICA (Tabula terre nove), often called the "Admiral's map" after Columbus. The map of Lorraine, printed in red, black and olive, is the earliest examples of color printing.
Phillips, Atlases 359; Sabin 66478; Shirley 34; The World Encompassed 56