Bod-Inc: P-531
Ptolemaeus Alexandrinus, Claudius
Geographia (trans. Jacobus Angeli, ed. Philippus Beroaldus and others).
Analysis of Content
A1r Angeli, Jacobus: [Prefatory letter addressed] to Alexander V, Pont. Max. Incipit: ‘[A]d tempora Claudii Ptolemae uiri Alexandrini . . .’ See P‑526.
A1v Ptolemaeus [Alexandrinus], Claudius: Geographia. ‘Claudii Ptolemaei Cosnographiae(!)'. Translated from the Greek by Jacobus Angeli. According to the note to the reader, edited by Philippus Beroaldus, Petrus Bonus Avogarius, Hieronymus de Manfredi; and by Galeottus Martius and Cola Montanus as correctors. A slightly altered version of the text in Goff P‑1081; see E. Lynam, The First Engraved Atlas of the World (Jenkintown, Pa., 1941), 11.
[*1r] [Note about the editing of the text and the maps addressed to the reader.] Incipit: ‘Tabula Cosmographiae secundum dimensiones Ptolomei impressas . . .’
[*1r] [List of the maps.]
First sheet: 26 engraved maps. The maps seem to have been modelled on those drawn up by Nicolaus Germanus; see P‑527; Campbell, Maps, 129-30; Firenze e la scoperta, 217-9 no. 105. See Lynam, First Engraved Atlas, 7-11, for the authorship and dating of the production of the various states of the maps; see 12-20 for the characteristics distinguishing the maps in this edition from those in all other editions; see 21-6 for the various states of the maps in the extant copies of this edition; see Appendices A and B for tables of the variations between copies.
Imprint
Imprint: Bologna: Dominicus de Lapis, 23 June ‘1462' [i.e. 1477]. Folio.
Remarks: For contracts documenting the production of the book, proving that the date must be 1477 (not 1462, as printed), see BMC and Lynam, First Engraved Atlas.
Collation
Collation: A10 B C8 D4 a10 b8 c6 E6+1 [*2] + 52 leaves (26 sheets) not forming part of gatherings.
Remarks: Collation (` . . . [*2]') as BSB‑Ink, not as BMC.
Illustrations: 26 engraved maps.
References
ISTC: ip01082000
Hain: H 13538;
Goff: Goff P‑1082;
BMC: BMC VI 814;
Proctor: Pr 6538;
Others: BSB‑Ink P‑857; Campbell, Maps, 95-120; Eames 66471; Sander 5974; Sheppard 5326. Facsimile: Amsterdam, 1963.
LCN: 14064716
Copies
Copy number: P-531(1)
The date in the colophon is misprinted: ‘M. CCCC. LXII'.
Binding: Nineteenth-century blue marbled paper boards; the gold stamp of the Bodleian Library on both covers; gilt title on a red leather label on the spine; sprinkled red- and blue-edged leaves.
Size: 428 × 290 × 31 mm.
Size of leaf: 420 × 280 mm.
‘C comp/f. comp/f.'(bookseller's mark?) on front pastedown.
On the recto of the second endleaf, notes on Ptolemy in a late sixteenth-century hand; on the verso a ‘Disticon ad lectorem': ‘Sit procul a cunctis in istum ponere manus | Furtiuas, quo non littera longa fiat'. A few marginal notes in the same hand, summarizing key points and supplying a pointing hand. A note on the date of the edition on [*2r] in an early sixteenth-century hand.
The maps are painted in various colours.
Provenance: On the verso of the second front endleaf: ‘Emptus idibus nouembris 1554 assibus xv a domino Jacobo | C[a?]rano [ ] coram domino Geor[d?]ano commisse deger[ ] | in ciuitate [ ]'. George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834); sale (1821), lot 254. Purchased for £9. 0. 0; see Books Purchased (1821), 21.
SHELFMARK: Auct. K 1.17.
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