This work was originally compiled by the Greek geographer Strabo (c.63 BC – c.21 AD) who travelled greatly throughout the then known world which was under the early years of the Roman Empire. This is his only surviving text, it was in 17 volumes and was not finished at the time of his death. Known as the ‘Geographia’, it is one of the great works on the subject to survive from antiquity. This is one of the most important treatises on geography being one of the first to attempt to comprehensively cover the known world describing its topography along with its political, historical and philosophical background.

It was first published in 1469 with many later editions. This example was translated into Latin by Guilelmo Xylandro (Wilhelm Holzman; 1532?-76), a renowned Greek scholar, and here published by Henri Petri (1508-79) in Basel. Petri was the stepson to and successor of Sebastian Munster (1488-1552). It contains parallel texts in Greek and Latin. As the publisher of Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’ including Sebastian Munster’s woodblock maps, it was a natural extension to publish Strabo’s own text utilising the same maps. The work includes an attractive title page, catalogue and extensive index. The work includes duplicate maps of Greece and three of the Asian maps as published. Provenance manuscript notation on title of ‘Heinrich Wellingme? 1850’; acquired in 1992; private English collection. Adams (1967) S-1907; Graesse (1922) VI, 505; Nordenskiold Collection (1979) II 287; Nordenskiold (1889) p. 30; Phillips (1909-) 3390; Shirley (2004) G.STR-1a.