Lot 107: BERLINGHIERI, Francesco (1440-1501) and Claudius Ptolemaeus. [World, untitled. Florence, 1482].

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.