Catalog Archive
Auction 161, Lot 666

"[Title on Verso] Asiae Tabula Quinta Continentur Assyria, Media, Susiana, Persis, Parthia, Carmania Deserta, & Hyrcania", Ptolemy/Fries

Subject: Persia - Iran

Period: 1541 (published)

Publication: Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini Geographicae…

Color: Hand Color

Size:
19.8 x 11.9 inches
50.3 x 30.2 cm
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Claudius Ptolemy was a mathematician, astronomer and geographer who worked in Alexandria, then a part of the Roman Empire, in the 2nd century AD. One of the most learned and influential men of his time, his theories dominated both astronomy and geography for nearly 1500 years. His writings were kept alive by Arabic scholars during the Middle Ages and reemerged in Europe during the Renaissance. The birth of printing led to wide dissemination of his great works on astronomy and geography. There were a number of editions of his Geographia beginning in 1477. These early editions contained maps based on his original writings, known as Ptolemaic maps. As geographic knowledge increased with the explorations of Columbus, Magellan, Cabot and others, maps of the New World were added, and maps of the Old World were revised. Ptolemy's Geographia continued to be revised and published by some of the most important cartographers including Martin Waldseemuller, Sebastian Munster, Giacomo Gastaldi, Jodocus Hondius, and Gerard Mercator (whose last edition was published in 1730).

This map depicts the region between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, covering most of present-day Iran. At far left are Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Babilonia Regio (the Fertile Crescent). A large duck is depicted in the Caspian Sea. The map is based on the 1513 map by Waldseemuller. Title is on the verso along with Latin text.

References: Mickwitz & Miekkavaara #211-19.

Condition: B+

A nice impression on a clean bright sheet of paper with a bunch of grapes watermark and some old manuscript notations that do not distract. There is a thin, 1" long worm track along the centerfold in the Caspian Sea.

Estimate: $375 - $450

Sold for: $275

Closed on 2/8/2017

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