Bod-Inc: P-527
Ptolemaeus Alexandrinus, Claudius
Geographia (trans. Jacobus Angeli, ed. Domitius Calderinus).
Analysis of Content
[a1v] [Preface addressed to Sixtus IV, Pont. Max.] ‘Claudii Ptholemei Alexandrini philosophi Cosmologia'. Incipit: ‘[M]agnum ac inuentu difficile fuisse arbitror, beatissime Pater, uniuuersam terram . . .’ A reworking of a preface prepared by Calderinus; see Firenze e la scoperta, 219-21 no. 106.
[a1v] [Note about Claudius Ptolemaeus.] Incipit: ‘At uero iis Ptholemeus Claudius Alexandrinus philosophus Marci philosophi imperatoris . . .’
[a2r] Ptolemaeus Alexandrinus, Claudius: Geographia. ‘Claudii Ptholemei Alexandrini philosophi cosmographia.’ Translated from the Greek by Jacobus Angeli. Edited by Domitius Calderinus Veronensis, who appears to have worked also from a different Greek text, owned by Georgius Gemistos Pletho (c.1360-1452); see preface to the edition. Incipit: ‘Cosmographia designatrix imitatio est totius cogniti orbis cum iis quae fere uniuersitaliter . . .’ Firenze e la scoperta, 219-21 no. 106; Fischer, Claudii Ptolemaei Geographiae Codex Urbinas, I 189-90, 340-2.
[i1v] [27 engraved maps.] These (the ‘A recension') were drafted by Nicolaus Germanus; see Campbell, Maps, 122-3; see also Die Ulmer Geographia des Ptolemäus von 1482. Zur 500. Wiederkehr der ersten Atlasdrucklegung nördlich der Alpen, ed. K.-H. Meine (Ulm, 1982), 19-34, especially concerning the transmission of the maps. The engraving and printing were carried out by Conrad Sweynheym (1474-7) and, after his death, by Arnoldus Buckinck; see preface to the edition, Campbell, Maps, 126 and 131-2, and Firenze e la scoperta, 220-21 no. 106.
Imprint
Imprint: Rome: Arnoldus Buckinck, 10 Oct. 1478. Folio.
Collation
Collation: [a–d8.10 e–g8 h10 i–o8 p6].
Illustrations: Woodcut diagrams and 27 engraved maps.
References
ISTC: ip01083000
Hain: HC 13537;
Goff: Goff P‑1083;
BMC: BMC IV 78;
Proctor: Pr 3613;
Others: BSB‑Ink P‑858; Campbell, Maps, 121-47; CIBN P‑683; Die Ulmer Geographia, ed. Meine, CP2; Eames 66470; Rhodes 1479; Sander 5975; Sheppard 2880. Facsimile: Amsterdam, 1966.
LCN: 14064800
Copies
Copy number: P-527(1)
Wanting the blank leaf [h10].
Leaf [a1v], line 27: ‘ . . . manu Gemisti . . .' (the misprint ‘manugemisti' is found in BMC).
Binding: Eighteenth-century gold-tooled calf, with the stamp of the Bodleian Library on both covers; ‘PTOLEMAEVS' between symbols is written in black ink along the fore-edge; title and author's name written along the upper edge.
Size: 438 × 285 × 38 mm.
Size of leaf: 429 × 272 mm.
Frequent interlinear and marginal notes in a late fifteenth-/early sixteenth-century German (Pender's?) hand, supplying foliation numbering in the upper right-hand corner, running headings, extracting keywords, personal names, and place names, providing brief comments on and corrections to the text. The endleaves are covered with notes in the same hand, including geographical symbols (not subsequently added to the maps). There are cropped contemporary foliation numbers in the lower right corners.
Initials are supplied in red or blue. Four woodcuts are pasted onto [a2r].
Provenance: Sigismund Pender (sixteenth century?); on verso of the front endleaf: ‘Sigismundi Pender, Veneti, Oriundi Germani, Sacerdotis indigni'. Erased signature in a late seventeenth-century(?) German hand on [a1r]: ‘Ex libris Jacomos(?) Georgii [ ] Ebracensis (Ebrach, Bavaria) Consiliarii et Archiatri'; another erased signature in the upper right-hand corner is unreadable under ultraviolet light. Anonymous sale (London: Evans, 6 Feb. 1832), lot 1044; see Library Bills (1829-32), no. 348. Purchased for £10; see Books Purchased (1832), 20.
Former Bodleian shelfmark: Auct. O inf. 2.10.
SHELFMARK: Auct. P 1.6.
Go to top of page