[Title on Verso] Tabula Septima Asiae Complectitur Margianam, Bactrianam, Sogdianam, Sacas, & Scythiam, Intra Imaum Montem

Cartographer(s): Laurent Fries
Date: 1545
Place: Vienne
Dimensions: 45.8 x 28.2 cm (18 x 11.1 in)
Condition Rating: VG

Out of stock

SKU: NL-00292 Category: Tag:

1541 Ptolemaic map of Central Asia

Details

This fine woodblock map covers Central Asia east of the Caspian Sea and what is now Turkestan, the Steppes, Afghanistan and beyond. The Himalayas run across the bottom of the map in the typical rope-like formation.

This edition was printed by Gaspar Treschel and edited by Michael Villanovus (known as Servetus). Servetus was charged with heresy by John Calvin in 1553, in part due to the text in this atlas. The courts found him guilty and sentenced him to burning at the stake, atop a pyre of his own books, including this atlas.

Cartographer(s):

Laurent Fries

Laurent/Lorenz Fries (ca. 1485-1532) was born in Alsace circa 1490 and studied medicine and mathematics at a number of European universities. He was trained as a physician but was also keenly interested in cartography and medical publications. From 1518-19 Fries is mainly based in Strasbourg, where he was commissioned to compile the first edition of Waldseemüller’s atlas after his death in 1520.

Condition Description

A clean and bright example on paper with a bunch of grapes watermark, one small worm hole along the centerfold, and old manuscript notations in the image.

References

Mickwitz & Miekkavaara #211-21.