File:Scithia intra imavm (MAPS 77).jpg

Woodcut engraving handcolored with watercolor.

Full color.

Relief shown pictorially.

Trapezoid projection.

Printed on verso on page "21": "Tabula Septima Asiae."

Printed on verso is a description of this region east of the Caspian Sea.

Printed next to the illustration of a man with a sword: "Hic dominator z ambulat contra plos noy prires tartarorum et imperatr sup 600 armatorum ororum."

Shows the modern-day Caspian Sea as "Mare Hircanu" as well as modern-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan as "Scithia Intra Imaum," Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, northern Iran as "Media," and Afghanistan as "Bactriana." Of note, two unlabeled islands are shown in the Caspian Sea. Cities are marked with red dots throughout Bactriana and the Hindu-Kush Mountains are shown. Forests are shown as single trees in the lower right "Sacha Regio." A scale is printed outside the left border. A depiction of a Tartar king in a tent with a sword is shown next to the Caspian Sea.

Claudius Ptolemy (A.D. c. 87-c. 150) was a librarian at Alexandria in the second century. His cartography, "Geographia," did not appear in the West until about the fifteenth century. Several early printed versions of "Geographia" showed Ptolemy's text followed by 27 maps. The 1482 Ulm edition of "Geographia" was the first to be printed outside of Italy. It contained 26 woodcut maps of Ptolemy's work and 6 "modern" maps (Moreland and Bannister 78). It was the first edition to include contemporary knowledge about the world and incorporate this information into Ptolemy's maps. This practice became quite common and is evident throughout later editions of "Geographia." The 1513 edition created by Martin Waldseemuller (c. 1470-1518) and printed in Strassburg by Johann Shott was one of the first versions to include an extra set of maps (20 new maps in addition to Ptolemy's maps) and considered one of the world's modern atlases. In 1522, Lorenz Fries (ca. 1490-ca. 1532), a physician, astrologer, geographer and admirer of Waldseemuller, revised Waldseemuller's edition and reduced the sizes of the maps. The Fries 1522 Strassburg version also contains 2 new maps plus Fries' new world map. In 1535, Michael Servetus re-issued the 1522 edition in Lyon, including the earlier comments considered "derogatory" discussing the Holy Land. In 1541, Servetus re-issued the 1522 edition again but this time, the work was printed in Vienne (Dauphine) and the comments concerning the Holy Land were deleted (Moreland and Bannister, 78; 288-9). This map is from Servetus's 1541 version of "Geografia" published by M & G Treschel. The map has a trapezoidal projection common to Ptolemaic regional maps. Nordenskiold considers this version "inferior" to the 1535 edition as it lacks the earlier maps' interesting comments (Johnson). Source(s): Johnson, W. Vance. "A Farewell to Maps." Exhibition. October 28, 1990. Moreland, Carl and David Bannister. "Antique Maps: A Collector's Handbook." New York: Longman Group, Ltd., 1983. Nordenskiold, A. E. "Facisimile-atlas to the Early History of Cartography With Reproductions of the Most Important Maps Printed in the XV and XVI Centuries." Trans. Johan Adolf Eklof and Clements R. Markham. Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt, 1889. Tooley, Ronald Vere. "Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers." Hertfordshire: Map Collector Publications Limited, 1979.

• Subjects (LCSH): Central Asia-Maps-Early works to 1800. Caspian Sea Coast-Maps-Early works to 1800.
• Categories: Cartographic Curiosa