Beschreibung
WITH THE EARLIEST REPRESENTATION OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA Gaius Julius Solinus. Polyhistor, Rerum toto Orbe Memorabilium Thesaurus Locupletissimus. Together with: Pompanius Mela. De Situ Orbis. Edited by Sebastian Münster, with his copious notes updating the accounts of Solinus and Mela with more recent geographical information. Text in Latin, with some passages in Hebrew and Greek. Preliminaries include a Life of Solinus by Johannes Camers, and an extensive index.Illustrated with 20 woodcut maps (probably by Sebastian Münster), including 2 fold-out double-page woodcut maps hors text; and 18 woodcut maps or topographical views in text, 2 of which are full-page. Woodcut device on title-page. Numerous fine woodcut initials of various sizes, both decorative and historiated, including a fine large 10-line initial 'C' at the opening of Solinus showing Adam and Eve's expulsion from Paradise. Folio. Bound in full 17th-century semi-rigid vellum with yapp edges; blind-stamped ornamental arabesque centerpiece on both covers; flat spine. Basel: Michael Isingrin and Heinrich Petri, 1538. First Münster Edition. Complete, including the rear blank. With the celebrated Asia Maior folding map (bound after p. 149) which contains "The earliest representation of the north-west coast of America on a printed map." (Burden). It is shown in the upper right corner of this map as a land mass labeled "Terra Incognita," and depicted with a small bay, trees, and hills. The map is also noteworthy for showing the first delineations of a strait between Asia and America, some two hundred years before Bering's voyage.(Burden) At the time of publication, scholars and voyagers were still debating the plausibility of a land mass connection between the Asian and American continents. It has also been noted that "this is one of the earliest obtainable maps devoted solely to the continent of Asia." This edition of Polyhistor also includes a detailed folding map (bound after p. 38 and labeled "Typus Graeciae") of the Greek Isles, showing parts of modern day Turkey, Cyprus and Eastern Europe including the Black Sea. The 2 full-page maps depict: the continent of Europe (p. [158]), including Asia Minor and parts of Russia; and the northern half of the continent of Africa (p. [83]) based upon Ptolemy and some modern sources, and prominently showing the "Mountains of the Moon" (Montes Lunae), a mountain range in central Africa that is the source of the White Nile, including the Holy Land and Arabia. Among the smaller maps within the text are: a map of Russia (p. 48), especially "noteworthy on account of the river-system of Russia being here for the first time represented with tolerable accuracy - even more correct than on the maps of Antonius Wied and Herberstein. [.] it appears to be founded on communications from Herberstein and from the learned canon in Cracow, Mathias a Michou." (Nordenskiöld) The book also contains maps of: England, India, Italy, Morea, Rhodos, Rhetia and Helvetia, Black Forest, etc. The editor, Sebastian Münster, provided his own commentary to the text of Solinus and Mela, and probably also served as its cartographer (although there is still some doubt about this). Münster was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Christian Hebraist scholar. His work, the Cosmographia from 1544, was the earliest German description of the world. In 1540 he published his own "updated" edition of Ptolemy's Geography, which included maps of the new or modern world. Münster was also one of the first cartographers to create space in the woodblock for the insertion of metal-cut place-names. His decision to refer to the New World as "America" in his 1544 edition of the Cosmographia greatly contributed to the name's endurance. "In 1538 Münster produced an edition of Solinus and Mela which called upon his skills as an artist, linguist and his connections with the Basel printers. His editions served the humanist's urge to bring classical writers to honour by supp. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 7453
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