Detail map of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy,Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy Overview map of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy,Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

A: Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, B: Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The first illustrated edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia, the First Book with Engraved Maps

1477
Detail of map from Ptolemy

Detail of map from Ptolemy's Cosmographia showing the southeastern coast of Spain.  Click on the link to view and enlarge the entire page from the book.

In 1477 the first illustrated edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia, translated by humanist Giacomo d'Angelo da Scarperia (Jacopo d’Angelo, Jacopus Angelus da Scarperia) and edited by  Philippus Beroaldus and others, was published in Bologna by Dominicus de Lapis, but with the erroneous colophon date of 23 June 1462. The edition contained 26 copperplate maps.

For a long time date on the colophon of this edition was thought to have been a misprint for 1482, but manuscripts found in Bologna set the publication date in 1477. "It thus becomes the first book with engraved maps, and also the first book with the maps by a known artist, the plates having been engraved by Taddeo Crevilli of Ferrara" (Lone, Some Noteworthy Firsts in Europe during the Fifteenth Century [1930]) 41).

In November 2013 a digital facsimile of Hartmann Schedel's copy of this work from the Bayersiche Staatsbibliothek, München, was available at this link.

ISTC no. ip01082000.

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