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M.Waldseemuller / L.Fries, [Strassburg,  1522-1525?],
Diefert Situs Orbis Hydrographorum Ab Eoquem Ptolomeus Posuit 46 x 29cms, woodblock.  Uncoloured      

An early and scarce woodcut map of the world as known at the start of the sixteenth century.  Martin Waldseemuller's edition of Ptolemy's "Geographia", published in 1513 and 1520, is regarded as one of the most important atlases of the period as it included 'modern' maps to complement the body of classical maps previously presented.  Lorenz Fries' edition of "Geographia" appeared in 1522 with copies of the Waldseemuller maps cut at a slightly reduced size.  This is one of two, quite similar, 'modern' world maps to be incorporated in the Fries edition and is a very close copy of the original Waldseemuller "Admiral's Map" -  so-called after a text reference to the supposed source of the map, Columbus himself.  Copying Waldseemuller, Fries' map shows Greenland as a peninsula extending from northern Scandinavia.  It also shows the Nile rising from sources in the Mountains of the Moon and southern Asia with three prominent peninsulas, the most eastern curved inwards to reflect the only recently dispelled theory of a land-locked Indian Ocean.  Vignettes show five throned potentates - the kings of Russia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Taprobana (Sri Lanka) and Mursuli (a kingdom of north Burma)  They also include an elephant or perhaps a mammoth.  Of additional note is that, whereas the Waldseemuller original showed more of the South American and Caribbean coastlines, no North America was shown.  This map includes, albeit very sketchily, a suggestion of Newfoundland - one of the first, still obtainable, world maps so to do.

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