Geography. STRABO. Strabonis Rervm Geographicarvm Libri Septemdecim.

4to. 320x196 mm. Contemporary full stiff vellum binding, manuscript title on the spine with 5 nerfs. Page [116], 977, [3]. Printer's device on the title page and at the end, woodcut initials, Greek and Latin text in two columns. 27 double-page maps, 6 smaller maps, a map of Africa and a geographical diagram with the Earth round, all woodcut engravings in the text. Signs of wear, usual browning, waterstain on the margin of some leaves, good copy with wide margins.

First illustrated edition. First edition with the commentary and Latin translation by the German humanist and philologist Guilielmus Xylander, i.e. Wilhelm Holtzman. This is the most important geographical work of Greek antiquity, in this edition accompanied by the double-page maps of Sebastian Münster in Ptolemaic style, which illustrate all the regions of the Mediterranean, but also the Atlantic coasts, India and central Asia. The diagram on page 65 illustrates the curvature of the Earth, with a reference to the navigation of Ulysses narrated by Homer. The small vignettes are attributed to Johann Honter: the map of Africa on page 952 is curious. Nordenskiold: «the map of the world and three maps of Asia have been omitted, whereas the map of Greece and the 4th, 5th and 9th maps of Asia have been introduced twice. In the book there also appear small woodcut maps of Euboea, Creta, Lesbos, Rhodes, Cyprus and Cephalonia». Strabo's only surviving work, the Geographia represents a survey of the topographical, historical, and political characteristics of the principal regions of the Roman world, also including information concerning philosophy, political theory, geology, mathematics, science, and history.

Adams S-1907; BM/STC German, 834; Phillips, Atlases 3390; Shirley, British Library G.STR-1a; Nordenskjold 287.