Lot 03690

HONTER Johannes, “RUDIMENTA COSMOGRAPHIA”, Tiguri (Zurich), 1546. Second edition (but the first obtainable) of THE FIRST NON PTOLEMAIC WORLD ATLAS. In 8vo. Contemporary  16th century crude pig skin, rubbed and frayed, but still firm, a fine original 16th century binding. Title in facsimile. Complete with all four books of text and all the very early 16 wood engraved plates. The Atlas contains the “Circuli Sphaerae” – the famous world sphere with the continents and the winds in Greek and Latin-, the “Planetarium” – the famous world map in projection dated Tiguri 1546 – and 12 regional maps as follows: Spain, France, Germany and central Europe, Eastern Europe (Poland up to Black sea), Macedonia and north Balkans, southern Greece, Italy, Cyprus Syria and Palestine, Asia Minor with Cyprus and eastern Aegean, western Asia, Africa and Sicily. All maps, except the last, double -paged. Honter (1498-1549) was a Transylvanian-Saxon, Renaissance Humanist and Geographer. His cartographic production was of great importance in early 16th century. He is the first to produce maps in an Atlas, free from Ptolemaic cartographic influence. He apprenticed in wood engraving in Basel where he produced his first map of Transylvania. He returned to Brasov, Transylvania where he published, in 1542, the first edition of his Cosmographia (called Rudimenta) in two books with 16 wood plates (from different woodblocks that the ones presented here). He returned in Zurich, after the Turkish invasion, publishing in 1546, the current and final edition under his own supervision. It also contains one of the earliest world representation as a sphere (Magellan’s first trip around the globe was in 1522). A significant work for the history of geography & cartography.  Very rare.