May 29 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2706 -

Sale 2706 - Lot 227

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(WORLD.) Martin Waldseemüller; and Joseph Fischer. Universalis Cosmographia Secundum Ptholomaei Traditionem et Americi Vespucii Alioru[m]que Lustrationes. Early 20th-century full-size facsimile of Waldseemüller's 1507 woodcut world map. Hand-colored photo-lithograph, 51½x92 inches overall; segmented and mounted on period linen backing; stains and wear, separations at fold lines, small chips and losses. Innsbruck, circa 1903
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Additional Details

Full-size facsimile of Waldseemuller's monumental world map produced shortly after the only extant original example surfaced to public awareness in 1901 at Castle Wolfegg in Württemberg, Germany.

The large map is an ancient Ptolemaic projection of the world with the added inclusion of the western hemisphere where the name "America", in honor of the prominently-pictured Amerigo Vespucci, appears in print on a map for the first time.

In 2003 the Library of Congress acquired the only surviving example for $10,000,000. With that more or less being the definition of unobtainable to collectors, our version represents the closest one can come to owning a legendary piece of cartographic history.

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