Tabula VII Europae

Reference: S40284
Author Laurent FRIES
Year: 1525
Zone: Sardinia, Sicily
Printed: Strasbourg
Measures: 555 x 410 mm
€1,200.00

Reference: S40284
Author Laurent FRIES
Year: 1525
Zone: Sardinia, Sicily
Printed: Strasbourg
Measures: 555 x 410 mm
€1,200.00

Description

Important early map of Sardinia and Sicily.

The map is based upon Waldseemuller's Ptolemaic map, first published in 1513.

The seventh table of Europe depicts Sardinia and Sicily with the attributes typical of these two islands in all Ptolemaic charts: the squat, elongated Sardinia with the single chain of Menomeni montes (represented by five truncated cones side by side) and a few rivers; the triangular-shaped Sicily with its Cratas mons and flam¬es identifying the volcano Etna. There is also no shortage of names of ancient peoples, complemented by two tables within the drawing that give information about the peoples and cities of the two islands.

The first edition of Ptolemy's Geographia edited by Fries was published in Strasbourg in 1522, with maps that were copied and re-engraved from those of Martin Waldseemüller of the 1520 edition of Ptolemy and text edited by Pirckheimer. In 1525 a second edition was printed in Strasbourg. At the death of Fries and Gruninger, the plates were purchased by the brothers Melchior and Gaspar Treschel, who printed a third edition in Lyon in 1535. For the text, the two editors used the supervision of Michael Servetus, who edited Pirckheimer's text. Finally, in 1541, Gaspare Treechsel published in Vienne, in the Dauphiné, this fourth edition, again with Servetus' text. In this edition, compared to the first edition of Strasbourg in 1522, the text underwent numerous changes, corrections and additions, but the wood-blocks were not changed. 

Example from Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini Geographicae Enarrationis, 1525.

Woodcut, colored by hand, small restoration in the middle fold and at the lower white margins, some foxing, otheriwise good condition.

Laurent FRIES (1490-1532)

Lorenz (Laurent) Fries was born in Alsace in about 1490. He studied medicine, apparently spending time at the universities of Pavia, Piacenza, Montpellier and Vienna. After completing his medical studies, , Fries worked as a physician in several places, before settling in Strassburg, in about 1519. In Strassburg, Fries met the Strasbourg printer and publisher Johann Grüninger, an associate of the St. Die group of scholars formed by, among others, Walter Lud, Martin Ringmann and Martin Waldseemuller.From 1520 to 1525, Fries worked with Gruninger as a cartographic editor, exploiting the corpus of material that Waldseemuller had created. Fries' first venture into mapmaking was in 1520, when he executed a reduction of Martin Waldseemuller's wall-map of the World, published in 1507. Next Fries’ project was a new edition of the Geographia of Claudius Ptolemy, which was published by Johann Koberger in 1522. Fries evidently edited the maps, in most cases simply producing a reduction of the equivalent map from Waldseemuller's 1513 edition of the Geographie Opus Novissima, printed by Johann Schott. Fries also prepare three new maps for the Geographie: maps of South-East Asia and the East Indies, China and the World, but the geography of these derives from Waldseemuller's world map of 1507. The 1522 edition of Fries work , now very rare, was not commercially successful. In 1525, an improved edition was issued, from the notes of Johannes Regiomontanus. After Grüninger's death in 1531, the business was continued by his son Christoph, who seems to have sold the materials for the Ptolemy to two Lyon publishers, the brothers Melchior and Gaspar Trechsel, who published a joint edition in 1535, before Gaspar Trechsel published an edition in his own right in 1541.

Laurent FRIES (1490-1532)

Lorenz (Laurent) Fries was born in Alsace in about 1490. He studied medicine, apparently spending time at the universities of Pavia, Piacenza, Montpellier and Vienna. After completing his medical studies, , Fries worked as a physician in several places, before settling in Strassburg, in about 1519. In Strassburg, Fries met the Strasbourg printer and publisher Johann Grüninger, an associate of the St. Die group of scholars formed by, among others, Walter Lud, Martin Ringmann and Martin Waldseemuller.From 1520 to 1525, Fries worked with Gruninger as a cartographic editor, exploiting the corpus of material that Waldseemuller had created. Fries' first venture into mapmaking was in 1520, when he executed a reduction of Martin Waldseemuller's wall-map of the World, published in 1507. Next Fries’ project was a new edition of the Geographia of Claudius Ptolemy, which was published by Johann Koberger in 1522. Fries evidently edited the maps, in most cases simply producing a reduction of the equivalent map from Waldseemuller's 1513 edition of the Geographie Opus Novissima, printed by Johann Schott. Fries also prepare three new maps for the Geographie: maps of South-East Asia and the East Indies, China and the World, but the geography of these derives from Waldseemuller's world map of 1507. The 1522 edition of Fries work , now very rare, was not commercially successful. In 1525, an improved edition was issued, from the notes of Johannes Regiomontanus. After Grüninger's death in 1531, the business was continued by his son Christoph, who seems to have sold the materials for the Ptolemy to two Lyon publishers, the brothers Melchior and Gaspar Trechsel, who published a joint edition in 1535, before Gaspar Trechsel published an edition in his own right in 1541.