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C1522
(1541)
Typus Orbis Descriptione Ptolemaei.
Mapmaker:
C1541 Fries rare woodcut Ptolemaic world map. An excellent example of Fries rare Ptolemaic world map. This edition is identified by the newly given title at top and the small section of engraving missing from the top right-hand corner of the … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
Typus Orbis Descriptione Ptolemaei.
Date:
C1522
(1541)
Mapmaker:
Condition:
In good condition, centre fold as issued.
Technique:
Woodcut
Image Size:
460mm
x 320mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1541
Description:
C1541 Fries rare woodcut Ptolemaic world map.
An excellent example of Fries rare Ptolemaic world map. This edition is identified by the newly given title at top and the small section of engraving missing from the top right-hand corner of the block.
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. The map is surrounded by twelve classical wind-heads blowing from each direction.
Verso just with printed number 27.S.
References;
Shirley 47, p.53, pl. 46
Lorenz Fries (1490 - 1532)
Fries was born in Alsace around 1490 and studied medicine at university. Having successfully completed his education, Fries established himself as a physician and settled in Strasbourg, in about 1519. He wrote on medical topics and met the Strasbourg printer and publisher Johann Gruninger, an associate of the St. Die group of scholars formed by, among others, Walter Lud, Martin Ringmann and Martin Waldseemuller. Gruninger was responsible for printing several of the maps prepared by Waldseemuller, and for supervising the cutting the wood blocks for the maps, for the 1513 edition of Ptolemy, edited by the group. The major project that Fries and Gruninger worked on was a new edition of the Geographia of Claudius Ptolemy, which was published by Johann Koberger in 1522.
