The first issue of the Wäldseemüller/Fries Ptolemaic world to feature windheads

WÄLDSEEMÜLLER, Martin.

Generale Ptho.
Strassbourg: Johannes Grüninger, 1525. Woodcut, sheet 375 x 540mm.

Some toning of paper.

An example of the second edition of Fries reduction of the Martin Wäldseemüller map of the world according to Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria. The scarce first issue of 1522 had the names of the winds in the borders but no woodcut wind-heads.
The map was originally drawn by Wäldseemüller for his 1513 edition of the 'Geographia'. This smaller format version by Laurent Fries was cut for a new 'Chronica mundi' (history of the world) that Wäldseemüller was writing; however his death in 1520 caused the project to be shelved, so the woodcuts were used to publish a new edition of the 'Geographia'. The first edition was unsuccessful, but a revision of the text improved reception and further editions were published in 1525, 1535 & 1541.

SHIRLEY: World 47, this state illustrated.
Stock ID : 22639