Florence, Niccolò di Lorenzo della Magna, [before September 1482]. mm 420x540. Etching with coeval coloring, tapered paper, restorations, small woodworm holes.
BERLINGHIERI, Francesco (1440-1501) and Claudius Ptolemaeus. [World, untitled. Florence, 1482]. Engraved world map, image 418 x 565 mm (418 x 565 mm sheet), the world map surrounded by 12 wind heads. (Light soiling, centerfold strengthened with vellum and evidence of stitch holes, trimmed closely affecting wind heads, as often, back strengthened). FROM THE THIRD PRINTED ATLAS, ONE OF THE EARLIEST PRINTED WORLD MAPS. Berlinghieri's adaptation of Ptolemy's Cosmographia depicts the world map on the original Ptolemaic projection of equidistant parallels and meridians and is the first to supply gazetteers for the map. It was first published in the Geographia di Francesco Berlinghieri… in terza rima… [Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii Alemanus, before September 1482]. The world map “is strictly classical. It is drawn according to Ptolemy’s own equal-area projection and the engraving is clear and of commendable elegance” (Shirley). The copper-plate has been attributed to Francesco Roselli, an engraver active in Florence, but the actual identity remains unresolved. Campell, Earliest Maps 148; Shirley 9; See The World Encompassed 39.
BERLINGHIERI, Francesco (1440-1501). Geographia. [In Italian]. With additions by Marsiglio Ficino. Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus, [before September 1482- early sixteenth century]. 2υo (420 x 282 mm). Collation: \Kp\kυ2; aaυ1υ0 bb-ddυ8 eeυ6 ff-ggυ8 hhυ6 iiυ4 aυ6 bυ8 (+7* Larunesie); \Ky\kυ1 c-dυ8 [1υ4] eυ8 [2υ4] fυ1υ0 (+_10). 123 (of 126) leaves (lacking blanks dd8, ii4, 2/4). Contents: \Kp\k1 later-printed title, \Kp\k1v title In questo volume si contengono septe giornate della geographia di Francesco Berlingeri Fiorentino allo illustrissimo Federico duca durbino, \Kp\k2r In quale libro... posa sia, \Kp\k2v verse dedication to Federigo, duke of Urbino, aa1r-v proem to first book, aa1v Ficino, Apologus to Federigo, duke of Urbino, aa2r-dd3v text of first two books, dd4r-dd7v gazetteer to second book (maps 1-5 of Europe), dd8 blank [lacking], ee1r-hh5r text of third book, hh5r-ii3v gazetteer to fourth book (maps 6-10 of Europe), ii4 blank [lacking], a6r-b7r text of fourth book, b7r-b8+1v gazetteer to fourth book (maps 1-4 of Africa), b8+2r-d8v text of fifth book, 1/1r-1/4v gazetteer to fifth book (maps 1-4 of Asia), e1r-e8v text of sixth book, f8r-f9v gazetteer to sixth book (maps 5-9 of Asia), 2/3v-2/4 blank [lacking], f1r-f7v text of seventh book, f8r-f9v gazetteer to seventh book (maps 10-12 of Asia), f10r later-printed register and colophon Impresso infirenze per Nicolo Todescho & emendato con somma diligentia dallo auctore, f10v blank. Double-column (gazetteers in triple-column). Types 4A:116R, 4B:115R, 6A:111R. 51 lines and headline, initial spaces, most with printed guides. 29 FULL-SHEET AND 2 HALF-SHEET COPPER-ENGRAVED MAPS, all inserted on guards. 16th-century title printed in red. (Western windhead on world map just shaved, small chip from fore-margin of Italy map, a few other small holes, some dampstaining in upper fore-margins at end and marginally throughout, intermittent wormhole in top fore-edge margins affecting six maps, occasionally repaired but not affecting text or images, a few other minor marginal stains or repairs.) 18th-century vellum, green morocco lettering-piece. Provenance: Francisci Amadi (16th-century signature on later title partially effaced and on register leaf); Marquess of Bute (sold Sotheby's London, 16 October 1961, lot 661); Otto Schäfer (sold Sotheby's New York, 8 December 1994, lot 25). THE THIRD PRINTED ATLAS AND FIRST IN THE ITALIAN VERNACULAR Most significant in this edition are the "modern maps" of Spain, France, Italy and Palestine, appearing hear for the first time as copper engravings, just prior to their appearance as woodcuts in the Ulm edition of the same year. Berlinghieri's terza rima text is an adaptation of Ptolemy's Cosmographia and adds contemporary writers. Also added are other sources, both mythological, geographical and cartographical, with parts derived from Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Flavio Bondo, Pliny and Guido of Ravenna. These are the only examples of Ptolemy's maps printed on the original Ptolemaic projection of equidistant parallels and meridians, and the first to provide gazetteers for the individual maps. Like most copies, the present belongs to the second issue, with the red-printed title added to the previously blank recto of the original title-leaf. This new text was probably printed within the first two decades of the sixteenth-century and could not have been done by Laurentii, whose last printed work was completed in June 1486. BMC calls the new gothic and roman types "certainly later than 1500." The second issue also includes a register and colophon. Berlinghieri was born in Florence into a family with over 200 years of involvement in Florentine politics. He served in a variety of governmental offices including as Prior of the Signoria and Conservator of Laws. In 1479 he was appointed Florentine ambassador at the Gonzaga court in Mantua. He later found employment in Florence in the court of Lorenzo de' Medici and took part in the Platonic Academy, founded by Marsilio Ficino. Berlinghieri provided financial support to Ficino during the latter's translation of Plato's works into Latin. He began his work on the present book in 1464. The book was originally to be dedicated to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. When the sultan died in 1481, Berlinghieri dedicated it to Federico da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino. Unfortunately, the duke died before the final edition was printed. The 31 maps comprise the normal compliment of Ptolemaic maps (world map, 10 of Europe, 4 of Africa, 12 of Asia) plus the four new maps throught to be based on the work of Pietro del Massaio of Florence: Novella Italia, Hispania novella, Gallia novella and Palestina moderna et Terra Sancta. The copper-plates have been attributed to Francesco Roselli, an engraver active in Florence, but the actual identity remains unresolved. Goff B-342; H 2825*; GW 3870; BMC VI 629; IGI 1492; Sander 927; The World Encompassed 39; Campbell pp.133-35; Shirley 9; Nordenskiöld 3; Stillwell Science 147; Sabin 66501; Arnim 40. Facsimile edition ed. By R.A. Skelton, Amsterdam, 1966.
GEOGRAPHIA DI FRANCESCO BERLINGHIERI FIORENTINO IN TERZE RIMA ET LINGUA TOSCANA DISTINCTA CON LE SUE TAVOLE IN VARII SITI ET PROVINCIE SECONDA LA GEOGRAPHIA DISTINCTIONE DELE TAVOLE DI PTOLOMEO. FLORENCE: NICOLAUS LAURENTII, ALEMANUS, [BEFORE SEPTEMBER 1482 -- EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY] PTOLEMAEUS, CLAUDIUS--BERLINGHIERI, FRANCESCO (1440--1500). GEOGRAPHIA DI FRANCESCO BERLINGHIERI FIORENTINO IN TERZE RIMA ET LINGUA TOSCANA DISTINCTA CON LE SUE TAVOLE IN VARII SITI ET PROVINCIE SECONDA LA GEOGRAPHIA DISTINCTIONE DELE TAVOLE DI PTOLOMEO. FLORENCE: NICOLAUS LAURENTII, ALEMANUS, [BEFORE SEPTEMBER 1482 -- EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY] Royal folio (412 x 281mm.), third issue with sixteenth-century title added in red on recto of the first leaf and colophon and register added on f10 recto, 123 leaves (of 126, without the 3 blank leaves), double and triple column, 51 lines and headline, roman letter, initial-spaces, most with printed guides, heading on a1 printed in red, 29 double-page and 2 single-page engraved maps, early nineteenth-century English straight-grained olive morocco gilt, rule borders with fleurons at corners, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, a few small wormholes towards the end, touching maps in a few cases, small repair in blank margin of first leaf, neat repairs to 2 maps (1 & 10), small portion of margin of map 25 torn away, several maps very slightly trimmed at edges, a few light scratches on lower cover, joints slightly rubbed PROVENANCE Payne and Foss, 1829, inscription on fly-leaf; Sir John Hayford Thorold, tenth Baronet (1773--1831) of Syston Park, bookplates, sale in these rooms, 12 December 1884, lot 267, where the binding is credited to Lewis (for Thorold see Mark Purcell in ODNB); Rt. Hon. William Henry Smith, First Viscount Hambleden (1825--1891), for whom see R. Davenport-Hines in ODNB, bookplate; Marlborough Rare Books, London, 1959, catalogue 40, item 2, £1,200, purchased by Lord Wardington LITERATURE H *2825; GW 3870; BMC vi, 629 (both issues); IGI 1492; Goff B342; Bodleian B-161 (2005); Sander 927; Rhodes 319 (Queen's College, Oxford, a copy bought early in Siena) NOTE the third printed atlas, and the first in italian, with berlinghieri's text. Of particular importance in Berlinghieri's edition of Ptolemy are the so-called "modern maps" of Spain, France, Italy and Palestine, all of which appear for the first time as copper-engravings, just preceding the woodcut maps of the Ulm edition of the same year (see next lot for the second Ulm edition). Berlinghieri's text is a terza rima adaption of Ptolemy's Cosmographia, augmented by contemporary writers. Although not considered to be an edition of Ptolemy, these are the only examples of Ptolemy's maps printed on the original Ptolemaic projection of equidistant parallels and meridians, and the first to provide gazetteers for the individual maps. The title-page is printed in red, indicating that the copy is like most surviving copies of this work, a third issue. "The identity of the engraver of the maps remains uncertain but it is believed by some to be Francesco Rosselli, who was one of the earliest known map-sellers and was active in Florence up to his death in 1513. It is also said that these maps were sometimes sold separately, or in sets without text. I've hardly ever come across single examples and only once a set" (Wardington Catalogue). The text of Ptolemy in Greek is in eight books, and these were translated into Latin between 1406 and 1409 by Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia (Jacobus Angelus), a translation extant in a number of manuscripts and printed at Vicenza in 1475. Berlinghieri's rifacimento, and it is a remake, is in seven books. Book I in 28 chapters, Books II and III, in 21 and 30 chapters, cover Europe, Book IV in 16 chapters deals with Africa, Books V and VI (22 and 11 chapters) with Asia, and Book VII in 10 chapters deals with India and has an epilogue. It is not by any means a simple version of Ptolemy's text (although based on Angelus's translation), but has a huge admixture of other elements, mythological, geographical and cartographical, with elements from Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Guido of Ravenna, Flavio Biondo and others, as well as from contemporary portolans and the like. Francesco Berlinghieri was a Florentine humanist, pupil of Argyropoulos and Landino, and a member of the Academia Platonica of Marsilio Ficino, who has here added a short paragraph in Latin addressed to Fedrigo de Montefeltro (1422--1482), to whom Berlinghieri dedicated the work (f. *2 verso). Berlinghieri had originally intended to dedicate it to the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II (see Firenze e la scoperta dell' America, Florence, 1992, no. 112). Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, died on 10 November 1482, and printing must therefore have been finished before that date and after 17 April of the same year (the establishment of the league against the Venetians and the Pope, mentioned by Ficino). It is generally dated before September 1482. Federigo was a great collector of manuscripts (famously acquired from Vespasiano da Bisticci), but owned a goodly number of printed books as well, and had obtained a manuscript of Ptolemy in Greek which Palla Strozzi had acquired a century earlier. This Federigo kept in a cedar box (see G. Fiocco, "La biblioteca di Palla Strozzi" in Studi... in onore di Tammaro de Marinis, ii, p. 305). Of Berlinghieri's work there is in the Vatican Library a finely decorated manuscript, made for presentation to Federigo, but in the event (because of his death) presented to his son Guidobaldo. In the Braidense in Milan is another finely decorated manuscript, this time made for a Medici wedding, that of Lorenzo de Medici. The text of the two manuscripts shows little variation, but the maps are not the same. The maps number 31 and comprise the normal number of Ptolemaic maps (world map, 10 of Europe, 4 of Africa, 12 of Asia) plus four new ones: Novella Italia, Hispania novella, Gallia novella and Palestina moderna et Terra Sancta. These new maps, also found in the Braidense manuscript, are thought by some to be based on those of Pietro del Massaio of Florence (c.1420--1480) which are found in three manuscripts of Ptolemy by Hugo de Comminellis (the scribe of the famous Urbino Bible, written in Florence 1476--1478, and wonderfully decorated by Attavante and others, now in the Vatican Library, Urb. Lat. 1--2). The Vatican manuscript's maps are considered to be closer to those of the third redaction of Ptolemy made by Nicolaus Germanus, which appear in the Ulm edition of Ptolemy.
Francesco (1440-1501). Geographia di Francesco Berlinghieri fiorentino in terza rima et lingua toscana distincta con le sue tavole in varii siti et provincie seconda La Geographia et distinctione dele tavole di Ptolomeo. With additions by Marsiglio Ficino. [Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii Alemanus, before September 1482]. 2 o (425 x 285 mm). 125 leaves (of 126; without the final leaf with the register and colophon, but with the three blanks). 51 lines and headline, double- and triple-column. Roman types 4a:116, 4b:115 and 6a:111. 31 engraved Ptolomaic and "modern" maps (29 double-page, 2 full-page) printed on 60 leaves, mounted on guards (condition varies, some maps with marginal repairs affecting images, including: Tabula secunda de Europa, Tabula quarta [-quinta, -sexta, -nona, -decima] de Europa, Tabula moderna de Italia, Tabula prima [-tertia, -octava, -nona, -decima] de Asia, Palestina moderna, with greater loss of image to the maps of Italy and India; world map cropped at sides, several maps misbound, occasional light discoloration). Initial spaces with printed guide-letters. Title printed in red. (Portion of first blank torn away, title remargined and with large central square patch not affecting text, few other marginal repairs.) Modern blue morocco. Provenance : "Property of a Gentleman" (sold Sotheby's London, 11 March 1999, lot 4). ONLY THE THIRD PRINTED ATLAS, AND THE FIRST PRINTED IN THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. Berlinghieri's terza rima adaptation of Ptolemy's Cosmographia is particularly notable for its inclusion of four "modern" maps: Spain, France, Italy and Palestine, which just preceded the woodcut maps of the Ulm edition of the same year (Goff P-1084). Berlinghieri's is also the only edition with the maps printed on the original Ptolemaic projection of equidistant parallels and meridians and the first to supply gazetteers for the maps. The copper-plates have been attributed to Francesco Roselli, an engraver active in Florence, but the actual identity remains unresolved. Like most copies, the present belongs to the second issue, with the red-printed title added to the previously blank recto of the original title-leaf. This new text was probably printed within the first two decades of the sixteenth-century and could not have been done by Laurentii, whose last printed work was completed in June 1486. BMC calls the new gothic and roman types "certainly later than 1500." The second issue also included a register and colophon, which here is lacking. BMC VI, 629; Campbell, pp.133-35; H *2825; IGI 1492; Nordenski”ld 3; Sabin 66501; Sander 927; Shirley 9; Stillwell Science 147; The World Encompassed 39; Goff B-342.
![BERLINGHIERI, Francesco (1440-1501) and Claudius Ptolemaeus. [World, untitled. Florence, 1482].](https://stageimg.invaluable.com/housePhotos/christies/00/567300/H0027-L75237591.jpg)
![BERLINGHIERI, Francesco (1440-1501). Geographia . [In Italian]. With additions by Marsiglio Ficino. Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus, [before September 1482- early sixteenth century].](https://stageimg.invaluable.com/housePhotos/christies/34/289634/H0027-L17227173.jpg)
