How Ptolemy’s Work Influenced the Development of Geography

Early manuscripts and recensions

The earliest surviving manuscripts of Ptolemy’s geographical treatise, in Greek, date from the end of the twelfth or the early thirteenth century. Of these there are two versions, the ‘A’ recension accompanied by twenty-seven maps, and the ‘B’, with sixty-four.

A copy of the ‘A’ recension was obtained from Constantinople in 1400 by the Florentine patron of letters, Palla Strozzi, who persuaded Manuel Chrysolorus to translate the text into Latin.

Chrysolorus, the founder of Greek studies in Italy, was unable to carry through the task, and it was then undertaken by his pupil, Jacopo Angelus of Scarparia, who completed it about 1406.

His translation met with criticism, but, corrected and emended by a succession of editors, it formed the basis of all the printed texts for a century. It was first printed, without maps, at Vicenza in 1475.

The maps were redrawn and their legends translated from the twenty-seven maps of the ‘A’ recension in the first decade of the century by two Florentines, Francesco di Lappaccino and Dominico di Boninsegni: the ‘B’ recension was never made available in translation to western Europe, though details from the maps were on occasion inserted in the others.

Surviving codices and additions

The original manuscript of Angelus’ translation and the first maps of the Latin version have not survived, but manuscripts are extant from the third decade of the century, for example, that prepared under the direction of Cardinal Guillaume Fillestre in 1427 (known as the Nancy codex).

This codex contains in addition a map of the northern regions based largely upon that of Claudius Clavus, on which ‘Engroenlandt’ is depicted, and also a list of geographical positions.

Fifteenth-century cosmographers like Fra Mauro did not accept Ptolemy’s views uncritically, and it became the practice to add a number of contemporary maps to the MSS. to provide a basis for comparison.

Pietro del Massajo and supplemented maps

The MSS. composed by the Florentine, Pietro del Massajo, are particularly notable for these supplementary maps.

The earliest, which must have been written before 1458, contains the twenty-seven Ptolemaic maps, “cum additione provinciarum noviter repertarum et alia nonulla’.

The seven maps of the ‘provinces’ comprise Spain, France, Italy, Etruria, the Peloponessus, Candia, and Egypt with Aethiopia; the ‘others’ are nine town plans, including Rome and Alexandria.

The origins of these ‘modern’ maps in some cases go far back into the fourteenth century, and appear to be linked to the early marine charts.

The earliest prototype is a map of Italy which is found with a manuscript of Fra Paolino’s ‘Cronaca’. Paolino was a contemporary and friend of Marino Sanudo, and it was to him that Sanudo’s ‘Secreta fidelium crucis’ was referred for examination by the Pope.

The map, which was not drawn by Paolino, has some affinities with those of Pietro Vesconte.

The outline and coastal names were undoubtedly derived from contemporary marine charts; and an attempt has been made to combine with these a representation of the orography of the peninsula.

The source of the latter feature is as yet unascertained. In the course of time improvements were gradually introduced; in one type the orientation of the peninsula is more accurate, in another, the representation of its southern extremity is less constricted.

Massajo’s ‘modern’ map of Italy has the improved orientation, and additional details. No prototype of his map of Spain has yet been found but its evolution was probably on similar lines.

The map of Egypt is particularly interesting, as it includes quite detailed and accurate itineraries in Abyssinia. Other codices include a map of the Holy Land which, it is scarcely open to doubt, derives ultimately from that included in the Sanudo atlases.

Relief depiction

These maps are also notable for the method of representing relief.

The highlands are marked off from the lowlands; and their surface filled in by solid colour: though this method tends to represent all mountains as plateaus, it is possible to see in the dividing line between upland and lowland and in this use of colour the prototype of form lines and layer colouring.

‘There also appears to be an attempt at oblique hill shading.

Laurenziana map and Italian improvements

Before leaving these ‘modern’ manuscript maps, we may note that for Italy the two improvements mentioned above— in orientation and in the southern configuration—are combined for the first time on a map in another Ptolemy codex.

This map in the Laurenziana, drawn about 1460, is important as either it, or a near version, was followed by Berlinghieri, and later by the editors of the early sixteenth-century Rome editions.

It is an improvement on Ptolemy’s outline and is more correctly oriented—marine charts, and rather ancient ones at that, having been used for this purpose.

Dominus Nicholaus Germanus

More important as a producer of these manuscript atlases was Dominus Nicholaus Germanus. Very few details of his life are known with certainty, and his career has given rise to much surmise.

He was undoubtedly in Florence and Ferrara around the period 1464 to 1471. Florence was then a centre of cosmographical studies, and Nicholaus was known to its leading scholars.

He seems to have attracted attention by his presentation of a magnificently illuminated manuscript of the ‘Geography’ to Borso d’Este in 1466. In all, Nicholaus was responsible for twelve MS. copies of the ‘Geography’.

These fall into three main groups, two of which formed the basis of printed editions. Nicholaus claims several improvements for his versions: the maps redrawn in a smaller and more convenient size; the employment of a new projection (the ‘trapezoidal’); the correction of the outlines of the various countries; and the addition of new maps.

He undoubtedly made alterations but they were not all improvements, nor innovations devised by himself. The manuscript maps by Nicholaus were the basis of the first printed edition of the ‘Geography’, Bologna, 1477, and of the Rome edition of 1478: they have therefore an important bearing on the form in which Ptolemy’s data were disseminated, through the recently invented printing press and the technique of engraving on copper plates.

Berlinghieri and Martellus

Also at work in Florence during these years was Francesco Berlinghieri, who prepared a rhyming version of the ‘Geography’ and accompanied it with an important set of maps, including a number of modern maps much superior to those of Nicholaus Germanus, being related to the Massajo and Laurenziana types. The first edition was published at Florence in 1482.

Finally there was one other copyist engaged on the ‘Geography’, Henricus Martellus.

A splendid MS. of his is preserved in the National Library at Florence; it contains thirteen modern maps, but is probably later than the earliest printed editions.

The map of France and northern Italy is particularly striking.

The Alps are elaborately drawn in an ‘oyster shell’ design, outlined and ribbed in dark brown with a lighter brown and white body. Some summits have flat green tops with small tree symbols.

Martellus, who was also the copyist of an important atlas now in the British Museum, was of German origin, but nothing more is known of him.

Mid‑fifteenth century cartographers

Thus in the mid-fifteenth century four cartographers were engaged in multiplying copies of the ‘Geography’ and its maps: P. del Massajo, c. 1458-72; Nicholaus Germanus, 1464-71; Francesco Berlinghieri, and Henricus Martellus, about 1480. It is significant that the first three had connexions with Florence.

Early printed editions and engraving

The first printed edition of the ‘Geography’, without maps, was published at Vicenza in 1475, but probably before that date experiments were already being made in engraving maps on metal plates, from which large numbers could be printed.

The lead in this work was taken by Conrad Sweynheym in Rome, and his labours finally bore fruit in the magnificent Rome edition of 1478. It however was anticipated by the Bologna edition of 1477. (The title page is erroneously dated 1462.)

The maps for this were drawn by Taddeo Crivelli, an accomplished miniaturist and draughtsman, who had been attracted from Ferrara to Giovanni Bentivoglio’s court at Bologna.

Crivelli was no doubt aware of the acclaim which Nicholaus Germanus had won by the presentation of his illuminated codex to Borso d’Este, and this may have prompted him to propose to Bentivoglio, eager to show himself a patron of learning, the printing of the ‘Geography’.

The venture was certainly undertaken in a competitive spirit, for it was hurried on to forestall the Roman edition, and it has been suggested that one of Sweynheym’s workmen was enticed away from Rome to reveal his technique to the Bologna printers.

The manuscript which was used was closely related to one by Nicholaus Germanus, but owing to hasty production, the edition was unsatisfactory.

The text is marred by misprints, and the maps are poorly executed, with numerous errors and omissions, and much evidence of inexpertness and haste.

Its shortcomings were realized by the publishers, and during the next two years the plates were improved and new versions issued.

There is little to be said for this edition; it is certainly the first to contain engraved maps—but otherwise Crivelli showed himself to be a better artist than cartographer, despite the help of two astrologers.

Contents of Bologna 1477

This Bologna edition contains twenty-six ancient maps; they are drawn on the original conical projection, with degrees of longitude and latitude indicated in the margins, and also the climates.

Rome 1478 qualities

The Rome edition of the ‘Geography’ finally appeared in 1478, one year after the Bologna edition. The text was edited by Domitius Calderinus, probably using the Ebner Codex of Nicholaus Germanus.

The maps were engraved on copper by Conrad Sweynheym, and are very finely executed. The outlines are sharp, and there is a pleasing absence of unnecessary detail.

The names are in a style based upon the lettering on the Trajan column, and set a high standard for later map engravers. Mountain ranges are drawn in profile, rather in the style of ‘mole hills’.

Given the magnitude of the task, and the experimental stage of the art of engraving, the atlas is an extremely fine production. The maps are the twenty-seven ancient ones of the ‘A’ recension, on the rectangular projection: degrees of latitude and longitude are marked in the margins, and also the length of the longest days.

Berlinghieri’s printed modern maps

The first printed work to include ‘modern’ maps with Ptolemy’s maps is strictly speaking not an edition of the ‘Geography’, but Berlinghieri’s metrical version of that work, printed at Florence in 1482, is of sufficient importance to be noted with this series.

The maps, boldly engraved on copper, are thirty-one in number, the four additional ones being “Hispania Novella’, ‘Gallia Novella’, ‘Novella Italia’, and ‘Palestina moderna’.

These new maps are on the original rectangular projection; latitude and longitude are not indicated in any way, nor have they scales.

Their outlines are clearly derived from the Laurenziana codex or a very close source. The influence of the marine charts is clearly visible in the style of the coastlines, with numerous semi-circular bays and conspicuous headlands.

The representation of relief is also very similar to the Laurenziana manuscript. The names on these modern maps are in the current popular forms.

They are certainly the most accurate maps to have been printed in the fifteenth century, and it was unfortunate that they were overshadowed for the time by the so-called modern maps of Nicholaus Germanus in the Ulm editions, and to some extent by the Ptolemy maps themselves.

The Berlinghieri maps were reprinted again, probably after 1510, and they also had some influence upon the Rome editions of 1507 and 1508.

Ulm 1482 and trapezoidal projection

The next edition was edited by Nicholaus Germanus himself, and printed at Ulm in 1482. Thus in the period 1477-82, four editions with maps had appeared, three in Italy and one in Germany.

As one thousand copies of the Bologna edition were printed, and the other editions were probably of a similar size, Ptolemy’s ideas received wide diffusion just at the moment when they were about to be, to a large extent, proved erroneous.

There are thirty-two woodcut maps in the Ulm Ptolemy, a ‘modern’ map of Scandinavia, based to some extent on that by Claudius Clavus, having been added to the four new to the Berlinghieri edition.

The Ptolemaic worid-map, for the first time in a printed work, has been amended, the north-west sector being drawn to accord with new details of Scandinavia.

The maps, original and modern, have all been redrawn on the ‘trapezoidal’ projection which Nicholaus claims for his own. It may be regarded as a crude conical projection, the meridians radiating from the Pole, and the parallels being drawn at right angles to the central meridian.

On the modern maps there are no indications of latitude and longitude, though the length of the longest day is noted at intervals in the margin.

As these figures are based on latitude they afford some indication of position—but the reluctance, or perhaps the inability, to show it more accurately is curious: it is not until the Rome editions of 1507 and 1508 that this defect is remedied.

In drawing the new maps Nicholaus adopted a very conservative attitude; for all practical purposes he accepted the outlines of Ptolemy, modified in some details by the later maps mentioned above, and attempted to fit the new detail in this frame, with, as might be expected, very unsatisfactory results.

Reception and later Ulm editions

On the whole this edition can only have had a retrogressive effect on the development of cartography.

It seems, however, to have met with a good reception in Germany, for within four years a second edition appeared at Ulm (1486), with the same maps and the text enlarged by a dissertation.

In 1490, a second edition of the Rome version of 1478 appeared, with the twenty-seven maps printed from the same plates.

There was then an interval of seventeen years before another edition was issued. This coincided with the great epoch of maritime expansion, and naturally, until adequate details of the new discoveries became available, there was little incentive to embark on a new edition.

Rome 1507 additions

The third Rome edition appeared in 1507, edited by Marcus Beneventanus and Johannes Cotta. The twenty-seven ancient maps are from the plates of the earlier editions, and to these were added six new maps, engraved in a similar style.

Five of these had appeared in slightly different forms in other editions, but the sixth was of greater interest. This was a map of Central Europe (Polonie, Hungarie, Boemie . . .), by Cardinal Nicholaus Cusanus.

A manuscript copy is in the Laurenziana codex, and it had apparently been intended to include it in one of the earlier Rome editions; a plate was engraved but not used for this purpose, though the map was in circulation separately about 1491.

The other ‘tabulae modernae’ are derived partly from the Ulm editions (northern Europe, France, and the Holy Land—the first two on the trapezoidal projection) and partly from Berlinghieri (Italy, a close copy, and Spain, on the rectangular projection).

For the first time, the new maps have borders graduated for latitude and longitude, and numbered in degrees. It is significant that a legend on the modern map of Italy states that the measure of the degree of longitude does not follow Ptolemy, but is shown ‘‘according to the style of the nautical charts”.

This appears to mean that the map is drawn on a plane projection—that is that no allowance is made for the convergence of the meridians, for a degree of longitude is made to equal a degree of latitude (very nearly).

1508 edition and Ruysch

The following year these plates were used again for another edition of the ‘Geography’, enlarged by the addition of a short treatise on the new world by Beneventanus, and—of much greater importance—Johan Ruysch’s world map.

This was the first map in an edition of Ptolemy to show any part of the new world.

Venice — Bernardus Sylvanus

Three years later an edition was published at Venice by Bernardus Sylvanus which made a further break with tradition.

The twenty-seven maps were re-engraved on wood with many names stamped in red: they have ‘modern’ outlines with the classical nomenclature; and there are thus no strictly Ptolemaic maps in this edition.

In this way, therefore, a printed map of the British Isles, other than that by Ptolemy, was for the first time placed in circulation. It was not a very accurate one, being based on the portolan chart by Petrus Roselli, and a few names from it are also included.

The whole is crudely drawn, London, for example, being shown well to the south of the Thames.

The world map is on a heart-shaped projection, and is brought in line with contemporary knowledge; Hispanola, Cuba and a part of South America are inserted, and the complete coastline of Africa—but in the east Ptolemy’s outline is retained.

Strasbourg 1513 — Waldseemüller and the peak

The peak of Ptolemy’s influence on cartography was reached with the edition of the ‘Geography’ published at Strasbourg in 1513.

This is put forward as the work of Jakob Eszler and Georg Ubelin, but the maps are generally accepted as the work of Martin Waldseemiiller (1470-1518) of St. Dié in Loraine, though conclusive proof is lacking.

At St. Dié, Waldseemiiller was a member of the scholarly circle patronized by the Duke, René II. The maps form, with his other works—the ‘Cosmographiz introductio’, a globe, and two world maps of 1507 and 1516— a related body of old and new geography, anticipating the scheme of Gerhard Mercator.

The atlas contains forty-seven woodcut maps, of which eleven may be considered as new. These include a world chart which is a crude version of his elaborate ‘Carta marina’ of 1516, based in turn on Canerio’s chart; a “Tabula terre nove’, one of the earliest separate maps of the American continent; a map of Switzerland based on a manuscript map of Konrad Diirst of 1496; and a “Tabula moderna Lotharingiae’.

The latter is of interest as an early example of printing in colour, and for its attempt at depicting the landforms of the region.

Reprints and later editions

This edition was reprinted from the same blocks in 1520, and two years later Laurent Fries put out another, with somewhat different maps on smaller scales, but also attributed to Waldseemiiller.

Though many new maps were pouring from the presses, the interest in Ptolemy did not die out completely in the sixteenth century: of those editions which preceded Mercator’s, perhaps the most important were those by Sebastian Minster (Basel, 1540) and by Jacopo Gastaldi (Venice, 1548), the latter, a small octavo, containing sixty engraved maps, generally based on Münster’s, but with considerable additions.

Not long after, these composite collections of old and new geography were to be superseded by the modern atlases of Ortelius and Mercator.