COSMOGRAPHIA PETRI APIANI, PER GEMMAM FRISIUM APUD LOVANIENSES MEDICUM & MATHEMATICU INSIGNEMIAM DEMUM AB OMNIBUS VINDICATA MENDIS, AC NON-NULLIS QUOQ, LOCIS AUCTA. ADDITIS EIUSEM ARGUMENTI LIBELLIS IPSIUS GEMMĘ FRISII.
Apianus, Petrus:
Antwerp: Aegidius Coppenius Diesthensis for Gregorius de Bonte, 1545. [2],66 leaves plus folding engraved map. Numerous woodcut maps, charts, and diagrams. Five woodcut illustrations with volvelles or non-moving attachments (lacks volvelle on verso of leaf C3). Quarto. Contemporary limp vellum with remains of two ties. Vellum stained, moderately worn. Contemporary inscription in Greek on recto of front free endpaper, additional contemporary inscription on verso of front free endpaper. Ownership inscription on titlepage of Carlo Alberti and Abraham Pury, 1753, noting that the book belonged to Alberti alone after a division of their books on Aug. 15, 1774. Folding map torn along bottom fold, slight loss of paper but no loss of text; small separate repairs on verso of map. Occasional minor marks and stains in the text, but volvelles and non-moving attachments in fine condition and securely mounted. A very good copy. In a half morocco and cloth box. This 1545 edition of Apianus' COSMOGRAPHIA... is the second to contain the folding map of the world, which first appeared in a French language edition published in Antwerp the previous year. This world map is important for being one of the earliest to show the full sweep of the east coast of North America. The map displays the eastern side of North America as a narrow land mass, named "Baccalearum," after the cod fisheries off the coasts of New England and Canada. It employs a cordiform projection, much used by Renaissance cartographers to represent the relationship between the Americas and the Old World, and maintains the desirable possibility of a northern passage to Asia over the top of North America. The map is also notable for being the first printed map to depict the Yucatan as a peninsula rather than an island, anticipating Ruscelli's 1561 map of New Spain. A brief chapter on the recto and verso of leaf 30 is devoted to America. Apianus' work, first published in 1524, was a fundamental work on cosmography (understood to include cartography, geography, and astronomy) throughout the 16th century. Twenty-nine editions were published within eighty-five years. Karrow writes that in the COSMOGRAPHIA... the author explains "the division of the earth into climatic zones, the uses of parallels and meridians, the determination of latitude, several methods for determining longitude including that of lunar distance, the use of trigonometry to determine distances, several types of map projections, and many other topics." This edition, corrected and augmented by geographer and mathematician Reiner Gemma Frisius, was first published in Antwerp in 1529. It also contains Gemma's important treatise on triangulation, which first appeared in 1533. The treatise was the first instance of triangulation being proposed as a means of locating and mapping places. An attractive copy of this work, with a significant map in the history of American cartography. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 545/3. CHURCH 84. SABIN 1748. ADAMS A-1279. STC (DUTCH), p.12. ORTROY 36. KARROW, p.53. JCB GERMAN AMERICANA 545/1.
(Item ID: WRCAM36575) $15,000.00