Ptolemy / Munster, La Geographia 1548

PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius (after 83-168 AD).
La Geografia. Commentaries by Sebastian Münster, translated by Pietro Andrea Mattioli.
Venice: Niccolò Bascarini for Giovanni Battista Pederzano, 1548 [colophon dated October 1547].
Comparable: Sotheby's, 2008 - $42,500.
8vo (6 5/8 x 4 1/4 inches, 16.9 x 10.5 cm.) 60 fine double-page copper-engraved maps by Giacomo Gastaldi, including 2 world maps (Shirley 87 and 88), embellished with sea-monsters, mermaids, ships, and wild and unusual animals such as elephants and leopards, each with descriptive letterpress text and map numbers on rectos and versos of the maps, decorative woodcut side-borders to title-page, fine woodcut portrait of Ptolemy observing the heavens, woodcut initials, illustrations and diagrams throughout, publisher's large woodcut device on colophon leaf 2D7r and on verso of final leaf (cf. Vaccaro Marche, p. 318, fig. 427), blank 2D8 preceding maps. BINDING/CONDITION: Modern brown calf paneled gilt, the spine in 6 compartments richly gilt with raised bands, endpapers and edges plain. A FINE BRIGHT COPY. (64V10C) FIRST COMPLETE EDITION IN ITALIAN, preceded only by Berlinghieri's verse paraphrase of 1482. "THE VERY FIRST ATLAS OF THE NEW WORLD" (Nordenskiöld). Ptolemy's Geography, a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time (ca. 90-168 AD). The early illustrated incunable editions were all printed as large format atlases. This is the first small format atlas and therefore the first likely to be used by travelers. All maps in the present edition were engraved on copper by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565), cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century (Burden). Karrow has argued that Gastaldi's early contact with the celebrated geographical editor, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, and his involvement with the latter's work, "Navigationi et Viaggi," prompted him to take up cartography as a full-time occupation. Gastaldi spent two years putting together the maps for Pietro Andrea Mattioli's new Italian translation of Ptolemy. "[T]HE FIRST TO CONTAIN MAPS OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT" (Burden). Nordenskiöld states that the 26 Ptolemaic maps are based on the woodcuts by Münster which illustrated the Basel edition of 1540, and that the 34 modern maps are of Gastaldi's own design. FIVE OF THE SEVEN MAPS RELATING TO THE AMERICAS ARE THE EARLIEST PRINTED AMERICAN REGIONAL MAPS: the modern world map (map 59); "Carta marina" (the first sea chart depicting the modern world, map 60); "Tierra nova" (the first separate map of the South American continent, map 54); "Nueva Hispania" (the earliest separate map of the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and the present southwestern United States, map 55); and "Tierra nueva [del Bacalaos]" (the earliest individual map of the east coast of North America, map 56), showing the discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier. The work also includes the first separate map devoted to Arabia and the first reference to Singapore on a printed map. The translation by the celebrated botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1577) appears only in this edition; it was superseded by Girolamo Ruscelli's translation, which was first published in 1561 and frequently reprinted. PROVENANCE: Sotheby's London, Travel, Atlases and Natural History including the Library of Colin and Joan Deacon, 15 May 2018, lot 231 REFERENCES: Adams P-2234; Burden 16-17; JCB 3:153; Mortimer, Italian 404; Nordenskiöld Collection 2:214; Phillips, Atlases 369; Sabin 66502; Shirley, British Library T.PTOL-9a.