Gerbel, In descriptionem Graeciae Sophiani praefatio, Basel, 1545, contemporary tooled calf

Gerbel, Nikolaus

In descriptionem Graeciae Sophiani praefatio. Basel: (Joannes Oporinus, September 1545), woodcut device on title-page, woodcut initials, woodcut town views by Master Christoph, with final blank leaf, a few small tears at foot of gutter in quire A, occasional light staining

FUNCK, Johann. Chronologia, hoc est omnium temporum et annotum ab initio mundi usque ad resurrectionem domini nostri Jesu Christi, computatio... Commentariorum liber unus. (Nuremberg: Georg Wachter for Cyriacus Jacob), 1545, woodcut initials and tailpieces, calendar printed in red and black, with blank leaf L8

2 works in one volume, folio (301 x 200mm.), contemporary German roll-tooled calf over pasteboard, binding slightly rubbed, spine repaired at head and foot, lacking four pairs of ties

BOTH FIRST EDITIONS. Nikolaos Sophianos, a Greek scholar educated in Rome, designed a map of ancient Greece, based on Ptolemy and Pausanias, covering ancient Greek topography from the Trojan War to the late Roman period. It was first published in Rome in 1540 and reprinted in Basel in 1544 and 1545 (only the latter printing survives, in a defective copy in the Library of Congress and a complete copy sold at Sotheby's, 18 November 2004, lot 219). Joannes Oporinus commissioned Gerbel to produce an explanatory text for the 1545 printing of the map, describing its usefulness and containing a gazetteer of place names ancient and modern. The map proved a cartographical bestseller of the sixteenth century and Gerbel's introduction was greatly expanded for a revised edition in 1560.

The work by the Protestant preacher Johann Funck (1518-1566) is a tabulated history of the world arranged by nation, following the model of Carion's Chronica of 1532. History is divided into the Four Kingdoms of the prophet Daniel, a scheme which dictated Protestant historiography throughout the sixteenth century, particularly through Melanchthon's later updating of Carion's chronicle. Funck's chronicle contains a significant amount of ancient Greek history, hence its pairing with Gerbel's introduction to a map of ancient Greece.

LITERATURE:

VD16 G 1451 & F 3381; G. Tolias, "Nikolaos Sophianos's Totius Graeciae Descriptio: the resources, diffusion and function of a sixteenth-century antiquarian map of Greece", Imago mundi 58:2 (2006), 150-182

PROVENANCE:

Jan Buygers, inscription on first title-page dated 1551, and notes on inside front cover stating that he is the son of Jacob Buygers of Leeuwarden; George Glulow, bookplate; D.L. Cumming, inscription on flyleaf