Rare Maps
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The first atlas wholly printed in colours, incorporating the first printed map to indicate Japan
Liber geographiae
cum tabulis et universali figura et cum additione locorum quae a recentiorbus reperta sunt.
Venice,
Jacobus Pentius de Lencho,
1511
Folio atlas (440 by 300mm), title in red, poem on verso printed in red and black, 6pp. preliminary text printed in red and black, 115pp. text printed in red and black with four woodcut and letterpress diagrammatic illustrations, 28 woodcut maps printed in red and black (each double-page with all but the final world map printed in red and black in two sections on facing pages), remnants of collector's stamp to title, contemporary limp vellum, remnants of old ties, title in manuscript to spine.
Collation: [4]; A8, B-H6, I8, 28 maps.
Collation: [4]; A8, B-H6, I8, 28 maps.
1050
notes:
A very fine example of this Venetian editon of Ptolemy's Geographia. This is the first illustrated edition of Ptolemy's work in which an attempt was made to update the information given on the maps. It is also one of the earliest examples of two-colour printing in cartography with the major regional names printed in red, others in black, using inset type. The large cordiform world map is the earliest of its kind, and this is only the second Ptolemaic world map to show Ameri...
bibliography:
Shirley, 'Mapping of the World', 32; Nordenskiöld Collection 2:204; Phillips, Atlases 358; Sabin 66477; Sander 5979.
