Discover
In this section we gather together information for the collector of rare maps, antique atlases and antiquarian books. We offer advice on building and housing your maps and books, provide biographies of mapmakers, and a glossary of bookselling terms, and we draw together some common themes that span our collections, and tell stories of the histories of exploration and cartography.
The latest News
Down Under
23 July 2024
The Melbourne Rare Book Fair, taking place from July 25-27 at The University of Melbourne, is now in its 53rd Edition.
Alongside other international exhibitors, Daniel Crouch Rare Books will be flying in from London to present the only known example of Petrus Schenk’s wall map of Asia. This hand-coloured engraved wall map, printed on nine joined sheets is offered for $285,000 (£150,000).
Find the whole article by the Antiques Trade Gazette here.
Mapmaker biographies
APIANUS, Petrus
Born in Saxony as Peter Bienewitz, he studied at the University of Leipzig from 1516 to 1519, where he adopted the Latinised version of his German name, Petrus Apianus. In 1519, he moved to Vienna, where he was part of the second Vienna school of cartography, which included Georgius Tannstetter and Johannes Cuspinianus. He then moved again to Landshut, where he produced the Cosmographicus liber in 1524, an extremely popular work on astronomy and navigation which underwent thirty reprints. Based on Ptolemy, it contains paper instruments called volvelles, which Apianus would use so effectively in his work that they are sometimes known as Apian wheels.