Lot 130: BORDONE, Benedetto (?1445-1460 - 1539). Libro di Benedetto Bordone nel qual si ragiona de

BORDONE, Benedetto (?1445-1460 - 1539). Libro di Benedetto Bordone nel qual si ragiona de tutte l'isole del mondo. Venice: Nicolò d'Aristotile detto Zoppino, 1528.

2° (294 x 205mm). Letterpress title in red and black with ornamental woodcut border, woodcut initials, full-page diagram of a world map and windroses, 4 woodcut double-page maps of the world, Venice, the Mediterranean and the Aegean, 4 smaller double-page maps of Sicily, Crete, Cyprus and Euboea, 103 woodcut maps and plans throughout the text. (Waterstain to BB1-2 - the double-page map of the Mediterranean, a number of leaves and maps re-hinged or repaired at inner margin, a few repairs, light soiling and water-staining, occasional marginalia in an early hand.) Later vellum, ruled and tooled in blind, morocco labels lettered in gold (re-cased, soiled).

FIRST EDITION of Bordone's popular illustrated guide to the islands and peninsulas of the western ocean, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the Far East. It was printed again in 1534 and 1547 under the title Isolario or 'island-book'. This work is particularly notable for its wide scope, with the inclusion of recent discoveries in the Americas, for its well-known plan of the city of Mexico ("Temistitan") before its destruction by Cortez, and for its world map on an oval projection, cited as the first of its kind, perhaps attributable to Francesco Rosselli.

Bordone, an illuminator, cartographer and wood-engraver from Padua, worked in Venice. He has been suggested as the creator of 'the first globe printed in Italy' (Almagiá) from records of the now lost globe gores printed in 1508. Sabin 6417; Brunet I, 1112; Phillips 162; R.A. Skelton, Introduction to Tutte L'Isole Del Mondo (1966).

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