The first Hondius issue of Mercator's edition of Ptolemy's Geography

PTOLEMY, Claudius.

Claudii Ptolemaei Alexandrini. Geographiae libri octo Graeco-Latini...
Amsterdam: Cornelis Nicolai and Jodocus Hondius, 1605. Folio (425 x 280mm), contemporary red morocco gilt, arabesque central ornament within fillet and roll-tool frames, single ornament in spine compartments, remains of silk ties; pp. (10)+215+(32)(index); engr. title, portrait of Mercator in text and 28 double-page engraved maps with Latin text on verso.

Old ink signature on printed title page, some faint damp staining.

A fine example of the first edition of the Geographia to have Greek text in parallel with the Latin, with verse by Daniel Heinsius, P. Vertius and J. Gruterus among the preliminary matter. The titlepage has been re-engraved, but the maps are identical to the first state of 1578.
This was the first of Gerard Mercator's works to be published by Jodocus Hondius, a year after he purchased the printing plates. His edition of Mercator's modern atlas first appeared in 1606.

KOEMAN: 1:511C, ''The Ptolemy edition of 1605 is the first work printed in Greek in Amsterdam, and is a typographic masterpiece'
Stock ID : 22505