Ptolemaeus, Claudius

La Geografia di Claudio Ptolomeo ... con alcuni comenti & aggiunte fattevi da Sebastiano Munstero ... con le tavole ... di Messer Iacopo Gastaldo. Venice: [Nicolo de Bascarini for] Giovanni Baptista Pedrezano, 1548 [colophon: October 1547]



8vo (6 3/4 x 4 1/8 in.; 172 x 105 mm). Woodcut title border, woodcut illustration of an astronomer on second leaf, 60 double-page engraved maps, woodcut diagrams and historiated initials; old shelf-mark in upper margin of title, circular library stamp eradicated on title affecting imprint, worm hole in fore-margin of first two leaves, some light dampstaining in first few quires and in quires E-F, H, P, contemporary manuscript placename on map 12 (Europa VI), map 16 loose, fore-edge of map 30 shaved affecting text page only. Calf, spine gilt.

Giovanni Fantelli (signature) — Biblioteca degli Israeliti (library stamp on title, repeated on map 4 verso)

Adams P2234; Burden, North America 16, 17; Alden-Landis 548/32; Harrisse, BAV 285; Mortimer, Italian 404; Phillips, Atlases 369; Sabin 66502

First edition in Italian, the first edition of Gastaldi's maps including the first two copperplate maps devoted to North America, and the first octavo edition of Ptolemy.

The translation, including Muenster's commentaries, was made by Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501-1578), the famous botanist and translator of Dioscorides. The only earlier Italian version of the text was the metrical paraphrase of Berlinghieri, Florence, ca. 1482 (Goff B342). Gastaldi's Ptolemaic maps are based on the Basel woodcuts of Muenster's various editions, but his modern maps are independent of these.

"This edition of Ptolemy's Geography ... was the first to contain regional maps of the American continent... [Tierra Nova, map 54] is the first map produced of the east coast. It relates the discoveries of Jacques Cartier's voyages to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and those of Giovanni di Verrazzano." [Burden]