51 - Ptolemy. *Geographia universalis*. Basel, Heinrich Petri, 1540. A rare first Latin edition of Münster’s *Geographia*, based on Pirckheimer’s translation, in a genuine and fascinating copy

Ptolemy. *Geographia universalis*. Basel, Heinrich Petri, 1540. A rare first Latin edition of Münster’s *Geographia*, based on Pirckheimer’s translation, in a genuine and fascinating copy Ptolemy. Geographia universalis. Basel, Heinrich Petri, 1540. Folio (312 x 205 mm); [52], 155, [1] pages. 27 maps of the ancient world and 21 of the modern world, for a total of 48 double-page woodcut maps, each within a woodcut frame; diagrams both outside and within the text; woodcut printer’s mark on the reverse of the colophon; errata sheet and blank C6 page, woodcut initials, scholarly cartographic annotations in an old hand in the text (woodworm holes on some maps and plates with minor loss of engraved detail, water stains on some maps, small tears along the folds.) Contemporary full-parchment binding (spine missing). A new and significant edition of Ptolemy’s work, featuring redrawn maps and a text revised by Sebastian Münster based on Pirckheimer’s Latin translation, in the version corrected by Servetus in 1535. A mathematician, geographer, and professor at the University of Basel, Münster was among the first scholars to explicitly cite his sources and authorities, contributing to a new approach to the compilation of geographical works. His maps, both general and regional, exerted a decisive influence on European cartography until the publication of Ortelius’s *Theatrum orbis terrarum* in 1570. The map of the modern world shows Münster’s first draft, in which the Northwest Passage appears and the northern part of North America is labeled “Terra nova sive de Bacalhos,” in reference to cod fishing on the Grand Banks; this name would be replaced in the 1550 edition. The map of Scandinavia, on the other hand, is based on the model created by Jacob Ziegler in 1532. Finally, of particular interest is the *Novarum insularum*, considered the oldest standalone map to depict the Americas in a recognizable form. A sought-after first Latin edition of Münster’s *Geographia*, based on Pirckheimer’s translation, a genuine and fascinating copy