Geographiae Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini, Philosophi Ac Mathematici Praestatssimi, Libri VIII, Patrim a Biblibaldo Pirckheymero Translati... Tabulae Nouae Quae Hactenus in Nulla Ptolemaica Editione Usiae sunt, Per Sebastianum Munsterum de MUNSTER, Sebastian (1489-1552) - 1552

Basel: Officina Henrichi Petri, 1552. Folio (12 x 8 inches). Letterpress title-page, woodcut portrait of the author, and 27 fine double-page woodcut maps of the old world, and 27 of the new world, including one folding, ALL WITH FINE CONTEMPORARY HAND COLOR and with letterpress descriptive text on rectos within decorative woodcut borders, woodcut diagrams in the text and initials. Contemporary paneled calf , each cover decorated with blind borders of triple fillet and gilt fleurons and fine central gilt oval medallion (rebacked to style, corners strengthened, some minor surface wear). Provenance: some contemporary marginal annotations. Fourth edition, translated by Willibald Pirckheimer, and an EXCEPTIONALLY FINE COPY with beautifully hand colored maps. The map of America is in Burden's 6th state. Sebastian Munster was to become one of "the most influential cartographers in the sixteenth century" (Burden). Essentially he published Ptolemy's "Geography" with a "further section of modern, more up to date maps. He included for the first time a set of continental maps, the America was the earliest of any notes. He was one of the first to create space in the woodblock for insertion of place-names in metal type. The maps' inclusion in Munster's "Cosmography" sealed the fate of "America" as the name for the new world. The book proved to be very popular, there being nearly forty editions during the following 100 years." (Burden 12). Burden 12, 13; Nördenkiold Collection 2:215; Philips, "Atlases" 370; Shirley 92..