Perhaps the most unusual edition of Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’ was that edited by Bernardus Sylvanus and published in 1511 by Jacobus Pentius de Lencho. Sylvanus was of the strong opinion that Ptolemy’s geography was out-dated, and he therefore set out to update the traditional maps with the addition of more recent information, which he mainly gathered from contemporary manuscript material. Including both the original cartography and these new features created a unique effect, made all the more recognizable by the dual colours of red and black used, one of the earliest examples of a map printed in two colours. Sylvanus’s edition also contained a large cordiform world map, again the earliest of its kind, and the second Ptolemaic world map to show America.

While it covers the same area as the original map, Sylvanus’s ‘Quarta Asiae Tabula’ is strikingly different to those versions published by his contemporaries. It contains more toponyms, with major cities identified in red, although Cilicia remains rather barren, as do the peripheral zones of Assyria and the Arabian Desert. The inaccurate promontories along the Levantine coast have been removed, but the water in the interior has been somewhat neglected, with the Dead Sea diminished and the Red Sea not appearing at all. Likewise, Haifa Bay is notably absent. Above the image, the title is flanked by a pair of ornamental camels, and along the right margin, certain parallels are given, including the island of Rhodes and the equator.

Sylvanus’s map is something of an anomaly, especially compared to those of Tosinus and Waldseemüller, which were both published within years of this edition.