Apianus, Petrus — Gemma Frisius (ed.) | Cosmographia, Antwerp, 1574, contemporary vellum

Apianus, Petrus—Gemma Frisius (ed.)

Cosmographia. Antwerp: Joannes Verwithagen for Christopher Plantin, 1574

One of the most significant illustrated geographical and astronomical texts of the Renaissance.

Cosmographia, first published in 1524 would remain in active print for 85 years with a total of 29 editions, four of which were published within the 1570s. Apianus's most celebrated work, here expanded and edited by his student and Dutch mathematician Gemma Frisius, ties together various disciplines related to cosmology. The present work features references to the division of earth into climatic zones, lunar eclipses of the years 1572–1596, and the longitudes and latitudes of 1,417 places. 

Frisius’s cordiform map, originally published separately in 1540 and now lost, is featured here as in editions since 1544. This map, “Charta Cosmographica, cum Ventorum, propria Natura & Operatione” and the volvelle-diagram mark early cartographical references to America, with textual additions of Amerigo Vespucci’s New World discoveries and Frisius’s additions of the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire. 

4to (223 x 165 mm). Large woodcut of a globe on title-page (repeated on F2v), folding woodcut map of the world ("Charta cosmographica, cum ventuorum proia natura et operatione"), approximately 79 woodcut text illustrations, maps, and diagrams, several full-page and 4 with volvelles (C2v, D1r, H2r, O3r), a great variety of historiated and other decorative woodcut initials; title with marginal repair, early manuscript signature inscriptions to title. Contemporary vellum; lightly rubbed, ties missing.

REFERENCES

Adams A1283; European Americana 574/4; Ortroy, Apian 51; cf. Shirley, World 82; Karrow, Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and their Maps 7/E; Wolf, History of Sciences and Technology I, 382; BMC of Dutch Books, p. 12