| Method | Woodcut |
| Artist | Frisius, Gemma after Apianus, Petrus |
| Published | Antverpiae, ex Officina Ionnis VVithagij. Anno 1584. [Antwerp, 1584] |
| Dimensions | 230 x 155 mm |
| Notes |
A pair of illustrations, showing the five climatic zones and an illustration proving Earth's globular shape, from the 1584 Latin printing of Gemma Frisius' edition of Peter Apian's landmark Cosmographicus liber. On the recto, an oval diagram represents the globe, divided into the Frigid, Temperate, and Torrid zones popular in classical and Christian philosophy. The equator, tropics, and arctic and antarctic circles are shown, and the map is oriented along classical lines with south to top. The signs of the zodiac run in a band through the central Zona Torrida. On the verso, a set of four illustrations are used to prove that our Earth is a globe, by demonstrating the effect that different shaped Earth's would have on the projection of the planet's umbra upon the surface of the Moon. Moons and Suns are decoratively embellished as faces, and oversized figures traverse the horizon lines of the various Earths. Jemme Reinerszoon, known under his Latin nom de plume Gemma Frisius (1508-1555), was a Frisian cartographer, astronomer, physician, and mathematical and scientific instrument maker. Among his students were some of the most important scientific minds of the age, including Mercator, John Dee, and Vesalius. Petrus Apianus, born Peter Bienewitz (1495-1552), was a German cartographer, astronomer, and humanist scholar, best known for his two seminal astronomical works, the influential and much reprinted Cosmographicus liber (1524) and the lavishly decorated Astronomicum Caesareum (1540). The former brought its author into the orbit of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who appointed him Court Mathematician and made him both a Free Imperial Knight and a Count Palatine. Condition: Time toning and minor foxing to sheet, especially along edges. Minor surface creasing to sheet. Dampstaining and dirt marks to margins. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £350.00 |
| Stock ID | 51464 |