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The First Acquirable, Geographically Realistic, Printed Map of the World
In the Very Rare, True First Edition
World.
PTOLEMY, C. [Rome, 1478]
Untitled Copperplate-Engraved World Map.
12 5/8 x 21 ¼ inches
Two joined sheets, mounted on old paper; manuscript title in upper margin in an early hand; slight wear along centerfold, no loss, few small wormholes including one in the centerfold; expected finger soiling in corners and light toning, still overall an excellent, untrimmed example. Mounted on gold leaf in a fine archival frame.
A foundation cartographic document of the Renaissance in the very rare first edition: the first acquirable, printed world map that attempted a realistic geographic depiction of the earth. In the realm of printed world maps, it was preceded only by the essentially unacquirable map from the 1475 Rudimentum Novitiorum, itself a crude, medieval construction, and the 1472 Isidorus T-O map, which is no more than a diagram. (The world map from the 1477 Bologna edition of Ptolemy, which is discussed below, can also be considered unacquirable.) Not only is the example offered here a true 1478 edition, as validated by the crossbow within a circle watermark on the paper, it is also altogether uncropped, with ample margins on the sides, which is very rare with this map, regardless of edition. Moreover, the first edition of the Rome Ptolemy has been documented to be of much great rarity than any of the subsequent editions, which appeared 1490, 1507, and 1508.
The Rome edition has been widely judged by authorities to be the most accomplished of all the early Ptolemaic world maps. In fact, most scholars feel that in regard to both geographic sophistication and quality of design and printing, the Rome edition was not exceeded until Mercator’s definitive edition, published much later, in 1578. Also, among the early editions of Ptolemy, only the Rome has a documented and significant connection to Columbus. He is known to have owned an annotated copy of the 1478 Ptolemy atlas, and Ptolemy’s considerable underestimation of the earth’s circumference, which is visually expressed on this map, supported Columbus’s argument that one could reach the East Indies with relative ease by sailing west.
The Rome edition of Ptolemy was also an important landmark in the history of printing. One of its printer/publishers, Conrad Sweynheym, set up the first press in Italy in 1464. (Sweynheym died in 1477, and the work was published under the imprint of his partner, Arnold Buckinck.) It is believed that work on the project began in 1474 or even earlier, so that the plates were most likely prepared prior to those of the 1577 Bologna edition, which is considered the earliest printed Ptolemy by virtue of publication date alone. Moreover, the Rome edition is regarded as the vastly superior work. Skelton (see reference below) argues that the Rome edition was finer in all respects: fidelity to Ptolemy’s text and quality of both engraving and printing. “The cleanness and precision with which geographical details are drawn; the skill with which the elements of the maps are arranged according to their significance, the sensitive use of the burin in working the plates—these qualities, in strong contrast to the careless design and crude cutting of the Bologna maps, seem to point to the hand of an experienced master”—Skelton. He further suggests that its superiority as a printed object was due to the greater skills of the printers. He points out that printing from a copperplate as opposed to from movable type was still a new process at the time in Italy, and that Sweynheym was one of the few who had mastered it.
Shirley 4; Skelton, R. A. Introduction to Facsimile edition of 1478 Rome Ptolemy, v-xiii; Suarez, T. Shedding the Veil, pp. 20-23. |
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