PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius. Geografia cioè descrittione universale della terra partita in due volumi.
Venezia, appresso Gio. Battista & Giorgio Calignani Fratelli 1598-1597
First edition in Italian, beautifully illustrated. Geografia, edited by Giovanni Antonio Magini, was translated by Leonardo Cernoti from the previous Latin version. The work is very important, since it documents the most significant geographical discoveries of the end of the 16th century, accompanied by an accurate commentary by Magini: furthermore, to the traditional twenty-seven maps with which Ptolemy's work had been illustrated until then, some were added another thirty-seven finely engraved in copper by Gerolamo Porro on the model of those by Giacomo Gastaldi.
The first volume, in eight books, contains the general principles of geography, the rules for the construction of geographical maps as well as a catalog of regions and places. The second opens with the twenty-seven plates of the ancient world obtained from those engraved by Girolamo Ruscelli, the different regions of the known world are then carefully described and illustrated with thirty-seven geographical maps; among these the world map for use by navigators and the famous ""Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio", taken from Mercator's map in two hemispheres and described by Shirley as "an exceptionally fine engraving in its own right." The name of the engraver appears on the title page of volume 2. This is a specimen of SBN variant B, with the plate of planisphere inserted between leaves D1 and D2.
2 parts in one folio volume. 298x200 mm. Contemporary vellum binding with traces of two binding strips and a handwritten title in vertical script on the smooth spine. Pages [2], 62, 21, 1 blank, [14]; 212, including the title page, [30]. Title pages with engraved vignettes, round and italic type, woodcut headpieces, tailpieces, and initials; numerous woodcuts in the text. In total, 2 title pages with vignettes and 64 copper-engraved maps by Girolamo Porro, including a full-page world map outside the text. A very fresh copy.