Tabula moderna Hispanie.
[Ulm: Johann Reger, 1486].
Original woodcut map, hand-colored, printed on a double-page sheet (570 x 407 mm) with a central vertical fold, verso blank. Upper margin closely trimmed with some loss of the printed border but no loss of the map, central fold reinforced on verso, a little inkwash and light soiling in the margins; a strong impression with bright contemporary coloring. Matted.
§ A "modern" map of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) by the 15th century German cartographer Nicolas Germanus who updated Ptolemy's Geography to show contemporary kingdoms and place names, with towns marked by small circles and mountain ranges with brown ridges. The engraving was done by Johannes de Armsheim, the first woodcut artist to sign his maps (on this map his mark is the backwards "N" in the woodcut text). The map was first published by Lienhart Holle in his atlas of 1482, possibly a ruinous venture as Holle went bankrupt soon afterwards and the sheets and plates were bought by Johann Reger who reissued the atlas in 1486. The two issues can be distinguished by the coloring of the sea: a blue was in 1482, a tan wash in 1486. Item #127116
Price: $12,750.00