Map 1: World
Claudius Ptolemy (ca. 90-168 a. d.) Ulm, 1486 Woodcut. 40 x 55 cm. About this Map Ptolemy was an astronomer, geographer, cartographer, and librarian in the ancient city of Alexandria… [ more ]  Main Map
About this Map Ptolemy was an astronomer, geographer, cartographer, and librarian in the ancient city of Alexandria. He drew an innovative map of the world that was published in an atlas known as Geographia. Ptolemy's map influenced his contemporaries and later Arab geographers, but was virtually unknown in the West until one of his later manuscript copies was brought to Europe and translated into Latin by Jacopo Angelo in 1406. His work was immediately accepted by Renaissance scholars as a great achievement of Greek science and Geographia was published and republished throughout Europe for nearly 250 years, eventually incorporating the early discoveries of the New World explorers. Ptolemy's map uses what is a called a conical projection to show the earth's curvature on a flat piece of paper. It shows the known world of Ptolemy's time, which had not yet been expanded by western European exploration. Columbus and his contemporaries relied on Ptolemy's work and set sail for Asia with little understanding of the vast oceans they must cover or knowledge of the American continent that lies between Europe and Asia. This copy of Ptolemy's map, known as the Ulm edition, is characterized by its Germanic style and gothic lettering. It is the first edition of the Geographia printed north of the Alps, the first woodcut version of this map, and the first to be signed; the inscription reads:"Engraved by Johann, woodcutter from Armszheim."
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