Ptolemaeus, Claudius

Geographicae enarrationis libri octo. Ex Bilibaldi Pirckeymheri tralatione, sed ad Graeca & prisca exemplaria à Michaële Villanovano iam primum recogniti. Lyon: officina Melchioris et Gasparis Trechsel fratrum, 1535 



Folio (16 1/8 x 11 1/4 in.; 410 x 285 mm). Woodcut device on title, 49 double-page maps of the ancient and modern worlds and one full-page map of Lotharingia, most with text on verso within elaborate woodcut borders attributed to Hans Holbein and Urs Graf, woodcut diagrams, historiated woodcut initials; title soiled with portion of fore-edge repaired, first few quires and maps strengthened on stubs, some contemporary marginal and interlinear notes, stains in lower margin of some maps with occasional repaired tears entering image. Antique vellum, manuscript title on spine.

Alden & Landis 535/14; Phillips, Atlases 364; Sabin 66483; Phillips, Atlases 364; Fulton, Servetus 9; Nordenskiöld Collection 2:209

Geographicae enarrationis libri octo. Ex Bilibaldi Pirckeymheri tralatione, sed ad Graeca & prisca exemplaria à Michaële Villanovano iam primum recogniti. Lyon: officina Melchioris et Gasparis Trechsel fratrum, 1535 Folio (16 1/8 x 11 1/4 in.; 410 x 285 mm). Woodcut device on title, 49 double-page maps of the ancient and modern worlds and one full-page map of Lotharingia, most with text on verso within elaborate woodcut borders attributed to Hans Holbein and Urs Graf, woodcut diagrams, historiated woodcut initials; title soiled with portion of fore-edge repaired, first few quires and maps strengthened on stubs, some contemporary marginal and interlinear notes, stains in lower margin of some maps with occasional repaired tears entering image. Antique vellum, manuscript title on spine.
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First Servetus edition, with the new translation by Willibald Pirckheimer (1470–1530), edited by Michael Servetus (1511–1553). The maps are printed from blocks used in Lorenz Fries's edition printed by Grüninger in 1522,  and in Grüninger's Strasburg edition of 1525. Four of the maps, including two maps of the modern world, relate to the Americas. 

Several copies of this, as well as the second edition of 1541, are believed to have been destroyed on Calvin's orders at the time of Servetus' execution for heresy in 1553. "One piece of evidence used against Servetus was the passage on the back of map (37 Palestine), where it is explained that 'Palestine was not such a fertile land as was generally believed, since modern travellers reported it barren.' This was not Servetus's original view, but copied from the 1525 [Pirckheymer] edition" (Nordenskiöld Collection 2: 166–167).