De Bry Rare Books
Fries's 1535 edition of "Ptolemy's Geography" with 50 (of 50) maps
Fries's 1535 edition of "Ptolemy's Geography" with 50 (of 50) maps
Fries's 1535 edition of "Ptolemy's Geography"
Clavdii Ptolemaei Alexandrini
"Geographicae Enarrationis libri octo. Ex Bilibaldi Pickey mheri | tralatione, sed ad Graca & prisca exemplaria à Mi-| chaéle Villanouano iam primum recogniti. | Adiecta insuper ab eodem Scholia, I quibus exoleta urbium no-| mina ad nostri secu li morê expo nuntur. | Ovingvaginta illae qvoqve cvm | ueterum tum recentium tabula adnectuntur, warij; | incolentium ritus & mores | explicantur. | [Vignette.] | Lugduni| Ex Officina Melchioris et | Gasparis Trechsel Fratrum. [ m. D. xxxv. | [Colophon :] Excudebant Lugduni| Melchior et Gaspar | Trechsel Fratres. | M. D. xxxv. | Folio. A., J.c. B., L."
-Printed Lyon in 1535 after Lorenz Fries
-Melchior and Gaspar Trechsel
-Collation: 50 (of 50) maps and 212 (of 212) leaves (complete):
-Title page, dedication page, text (pp5-149), with a table on the verso of page 149, followed by colophon leaf, verso blank. 50 maps (one single page) on 98 leaves; "Index Ptolemaei" on 35 leaves, followed by three leaves containing "Regionvm civitatvm" on the first, two tables on the second, and the list of errata on the third.
-Folio in modern full leather binding with wear and marks
-Good condition overall but there are wormholes throughout and there has been repair (with facsimile) to 2 introductory leaves and the final leaf (maps not affected). Trimming and some maps affected by toning and staining. Maps are complete but many have evidence of wormholes or some repair (without facsimile).
This is the 1535 Fries edition of Ptolemy's Geography. 4 editions of this atlas were published (1522, 1525, 1535 & 1541. All editions contained maps after the rare Waldseemuller Atlas of 1513 (& 1520). This is the first edition with additions by the Spanish scholar Michael Servetus (Villanovus). It is said that many copies of this edition were destroyed due to Servetus's heretical writings and Servetus himself was eventually burnt at the stake in 1553.
The Fries edition contains 2 World maps (including the first Atlas map to name America) and the beautiful "Admirals's map" also entitled "Terra Nova" after Waldseemuller. The Fries atlases were also the first European printed atlas to contain modern maps of SE Asia.
Some restoration work but still a good copy of this important and uncommon early Ptolemaeic atlas.