[2], 64, [2]pp., large woodcut of a globe on title-page, woodcut diagrams with moveable parts on verso of f. 8 and on recto of ff.11, 28 and 49; folding woodcut map of the world formed of two joined leaves inserted between ff. 30 and 31, two other circular volvelles of the globe at verso of f. 9, numerous woodcut plans and illustrations including one full-page cut of an astrolabe, contemporary vellum, contemporary geometrical diagrams drawn on covers, 4to, Antwerp, heirs of Arnold Birckmann, 1564.
Apianus’ Cosmographia, first published in 1524, is the most important geographical and astronomical text of the Renaissance. Petrus Apian (1495-1552) was the Imperial Mathematician to the Holy Roman Empire and his system for cartographic projection was an enormous success, popularised by Münster and Ortelius. In 1529 an expanded edition was produced by Gemma Frisius, an instrument maker and colleague of Merctor. Frisius’ edition became more popular and was published more widely than the original work by Apianus. Frisius included much more astronomical content and added volvelles for the determining the altitude of the poles, longitude, the meridian and times of day depending on season. In the section Libellus de locorum describendorum ratione, he was the first to propose the principles of triangulation as a means of carefully locating places and accurately mapping areas (see: Dictionary of Scientific Biography ). This edition also contains an account of Peru from Frisius.
One of the volvelles (f. 28) shows a map of the world including America, while there is a chapter on the founding of America (f. 30); according to the text the discovery was by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497 “ex mandato regis Castiliae”, and it was called a “novus mundus”.
The world map is a close copy of that first used in the French translation published in Antwerp in 1544.
Provenance. The otherwise blank verso of the final leaf has been filled with 18 lines of rhyming verse, written in English, which begin: “To him that lente this book to mee these following lines I send…”. There is also one marginal annotation in English on fo. 19 recto: “Ignorant beastes that cannot abiyde arithmetiq.”
Van Ortroy no. 47. Adams A1282
