This is the first Italian prose edition of Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’ and is considered by many the most important atlas printed between that of Martin Waldseemuller in 1513 and Abraham Ortelius in 1570. Nordenskiold refers to it as “the very first atlas of the New World” because it was the first to contain a series of maps of the newly discovered continent. It is the first pocket atlas to be printed. It is also the first to use copper plates and helped to re-introduce them into the world of mapmaking. The text is a translation of Sebastian Munster’s edition by Pietro Andrea Matholi of Siena, a noted botanist. The only earlier edition in Italian was that of Francesco Berlinghieri in 1482.

“Born in Villafranca, Piedmont, Gastaldi became Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic, then a powerhouse of commerce and trade. He sought the most up to date geographical information available, and became one of the greatest cartographers of the sixteenth century” (Burden). Gastaldi was one of the pre-eminent cartographers of his time. This atlas forms a large proportion of his total printed output. The maps are engraved by Gastaldi and are derived from Sebastian Munster’s woodcuts, supplemented with 34 ‘modern’ maps. They are engraved to a high standard and are bound with the 26 Ptolemy maps following the corresponding new ones.

The maps include the ‘Tierra Nova’, “the first produced of the east coast. It relates the discoveries of the first of Jacques Cartier’s voyages to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and those of Giovanni di Verrazzano” (Burden). The Nueva Hispania is one of the first great maps of the south west. ‘India Tercera Nova Tabula’ relates to the voyage of circumnavigation by Ferdinand Magellan, drawing on Portuguese sources it displays advanced knowledge of the Philippines (Suarez).

Provenance: Dominic Ferraux? in manuscript inside last original endpaper; bookplate of Hendery pasted inside upper board. Adams P2234; Burden (1996) 16 & 17; Sabin 66502; Shirley, World 87 & 88; Suarez, Early Mapping of Southeast Asia, p. 130.