Laurent Fries (ca. 1485-1532) and Martin Waldseemuller (1470-1520). Tabula nova totius orbis. Diefert Situs Orbis Hydrographorum ab eo quem Ptolomeus Posuit (A new map of the whole world. The hydrographers’ depiction of the world’s layout differs from that established by Ptolemy). (Strassburg: 1522 (1541). Hand colored double-page woodcut. Full margins. Image: 11 x 17 7/8 in.; sheet: 14 1/2 x 20 3/4 in. Minor crease in margin at lower centerfold. Overall, very good condition.
$7,500.00
One of the Earliest Obtainable Maps of the World Available to Collectors
A very nice double-page woodcut map of the world showing Europe, Africa, Asia, and parts of the Americas in the Ptolemaic worldview with parallel zones. Illustrations include an elephant and five throned kings representing the sovereigns of Russia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Taprobana, and Mursuli.
The application of new discoveries to maps was not a linear process. Fries and Waldseemuller’s 1522 New Map of the Entire World is a good example. Martin Waldseemuller’s 1507 world map was groundbreaking, but collectors are more familiar with his 1513 map of the world, commonly called the “Admiral’s Map” because of its reference to Christopher Columbus. The Admiral’s Map was quickly rendered archaic by new discoveries, but its elegant form (and likely its familiarity) made it remain popular for decades. In 1522 a version of the map was published by Laurent Fries, a mathematician and engraver who had collaborated with Peter Apianus on his map. His map is closely derived from the “Admiral’s Map”, but does not include cross-directional lines. Despite the availability of more recent surveys, Fries is unclear in the depiction of South America, Greenland, and most of Southeast Asia.
In the words of Rodney Shirley (1983) this map “is one of the earliest world maps available to a collector, and is an unsophisticated but attractive rendering of what was generally known of the world at that time.”
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 education, Fries worked as a physician in several places, before settling in Strassburg, in about 1519. While 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.
Ref: Shirley Plate 48 (Entry 49)
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