Catalog Archive
Auction 125, Lot 776

"Tabu. IX Asiae", Ptolemy/Fries

Subject: Pakistan, Afghanistan

Period: 1522 (circa)

Publication: Claudii Ptolemaei Alexadrini Geographicae…

Color: Hand Color

Size:
14 x 13.5 inches
35.6 x 34.3 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

This rare Ptolemaic map covers the region of present-day Pakistan and part of Afghanistan. Convoluted mountain ranges and river systems dominate the trapezoidal map. The title is enclosed in a banner above the map and the map is enhanced with a small illustration of a king. The Latin text on verso includes an illustration of cities and strange inhabitants and animals thought to occupy the region, including dog-headed people, a man without a head and his face on his chest, a man with a huge foot that is used like an umbrella, and flying dragons. Laurent Fries produced the woodblocks for this edition of Ptolemy's Geography in a reduced version of the Waldseemuller maps for the 1513 edition.

References:

Condition: A

Tissue repairs on short fold separations, not affecting the map.

Estimate: $400 - $500

Sold for: $475

Closed on 9/24/2008

Archived