[Typus orbis descriptione Ptolemaei.]

An excellent example of Fries rare 1535 woodcut Ptolemaic world map.

Fries, a geographer and physician, included this map in his version of Ptolemy’s Geographia, Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini ….Geographiae, printed by Johann Gruninger. It is based on the Ptolemaic world map issued in Waldseemüller’s Strassburg edition (1513) of the Geographia, which is the most important edition of Ptolemy’s famous work. It contained a number of new regional maps that included modern geographical knowledge. The map is on a conical projection with all regions above 65 degrees north covered by the inscription Mare Congelatum (Frozen Sea). The representation of the continents follows the Ptolemaic model of a landlocked Indian Ocean, except that the land mass that traditionally was shown connecting southern Africa with Asia, is not depicted. Africa is shown in classic Ptolemaic representation only as far as south as the source of Nile and Ceylon (Toprabane) is depicted exaggerated in size.

The map is surrounded by twelve classical wind-heads with their names in banners blowing from each direction.

Laurent Fries’s editions of Geographia
1st   1522 – Strasbourg – Johann Grüninger
2nd 1525 – Strasbourg – Johann Grüninger
3rd  1535 – Lyon – Melchior and Gaspar Trechsel
4th  1541 – Vienna – Gaspar Trechsel