Cosmographia (Geography), Ulm edition of 16 July 1482, with Tabula VII Asiae (Scythia intra Imaum) and Tabula VIII Asiae (Scythia extra Imaum, Serica)
Cosmographia
Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus); Nicolaus Germanus (editor/cartographer); Jacopo d'Angelo (translator); Lienhart Holle, Ulm (printer)
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
Retrospective transmission: second-century Ptolemaic coordinate geography rendered into woodcut maps by Nicolaus Germanus in the 1460s-1480s; no observation of the region by the makers.
Research notes
- Maps are Nicolaus Germanus's trapezoidal redrawing of the Ptolemaic tables (his third recension), not ancient originals; the Ulm woodcuts were reused for the 1486 Ulm edition (Johann Reger). The TOC entries 'Scithia etc.' and 'Scithia.' both point to page 0209 in the METS structLink; the second Scythia plate is actually page 0212, so the catalogue structure is slightly off (recorded, not corrected).
- Lead L007 resolved: earlier 'viewer retrieval failed' was a technical failure; the site is reachable and images are direct JPEGs under diglitData/image/ptolemaeus1482/{1,3,4}/<folio>.jpg (sizes min/default/max). Page 0209 image URL: dl.ub.uni-freiburg.de/diglitData/image/ptolema…
Why it matters
Earliest printed cartographic witness in this inventory to the classical Scythia/Serica frame that pre-dates the name Tartary: labels read SCITHIA INTRA IMAUM MON., SCITHIA EXTRA IMAUM, SERICA REGIO, Sera metropolis, Issedones, Sacha regio, Sogdiana, Bactriana, Hircanium sive Caspium Mare. Provides the baseline onto which 16th-century mapmakers later overlaid Tartaria.
Places named
Scythia intra Imaum; Scythia extra Imaum; Serica; Sogdiana; Bactriana; Sacae; Caspian (Hircanium sive Caspium Mare); Sarmatia Asiatica; Imaus mountains
Who copied whom
- Tabula Asiae VIII M091, 1548same work (stated)Both editions of Ptolemy's Geography maps
- same work (stated)Both editions of Ptolemy's Geography maps