The Annotations in the 1525 Ptolemy in the Huntington Library: The Continuing Influence of Martin Waldseemüller's World Map of 1507

Abstract

abstract:This article addresses the annotations in the exemplar of the 1525 edition of Ptolemy's Geography at the Huntington Library. The book has a rich ownership history and a sixteenth-century humanistic program of annotation by multiple hands. These annotations include texts copied from Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map. The manuscript enhancements of the book also include an extension eastward of the modern map of Eastern Europe. The book is a powerful testament to the use of Ptolemy as a matrix for the accumulation of geographic knowledge and to the continuing appreciation of Waldseemüller's 1507 world map.