Europa das ein drittheil der erden / nach gelegenheit unsern zeiten.
[Basle, Heinrich Petri, c.1550.]
Woodcut. Sheet 282 x 375mm (11 x 14¾"). Margin bottom left restored, tape stains in edges. Evidence of cracks in the woodblock.
Munster's famous upside-down map of Europe, although omitting most of Scandinavia, Scotland and half of Ireland. Despite the strange orientation (a German convention to align maps with the solar compass) it is the first map of the continent not based on Ptolemy. The map was first used in Munster's edition of Ptolemy's 'Geographia' in 1540 and also appeared in his 'Cosmographia'; the cracks in the woodblock first appeared in 1545. A new, similar block was used from 1571-2 until 1578, when a new map, copied from Ortelius, was introduced.
[Ref: 55504] £990.00
Woodcut. Sheet 282 x 375mm (11 x 14¾"). Margin bottom left restored, tape stains in edges. Evidence of cracks in the woodblock.
Munster's famous upside-down map of Europe, although omitting most of Scandinavia, Scotland and half of Ireland. Despite the strange orientation (a German convention to align maps with the solar compass) it is the first map of the continent not based on Ptolemy. The map was first used in Munster's edition of Ptolemy's 'Geographia' in 1540 and also appeared in his 'Cosmographia'; the cracks in the woodblock first appeared in 1545. A new, similar block was used from 1571-2 until 1578, when a new map, copied from Ortelius, was introduced.
[Ref: 55504] £990.00