Grynaeus & Huttich, Novus Orbis Regionum ac Insularum Veteribus Incognitarum, 1532
Novus Orbis Regionum ac Insularum Veteribus Incognitarum,
Item Number: 21418 Authenticity Guarantee
Category: Books > Travel Books
Adams H.M. G-1334; Sabin (America) 34100; STC German, p. 375; Shirley (World), 67.
First edition of one of the earliest compendiums of travel and exploration, composed by John Huttich and published by S. Grynaeus; with 17 accounts on the discoveries in America and Southeast Asia by Marco Polo, Christ. Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Fernando Cortez, etc. It contains also the famous report of Petrus Martyr on America: De insulis nuper repertis liber.
It includes also the very important worldmap in oval projection, attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger and Sebastian Munster.
Shirley: "It seems most probable that the map itself is Münster's whereas the decor is more frequently attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger who was co-operating with several Basle publishers at the time.
Geographically the map is quite antiquated and was probably prepared prior to 1532 based partly on the world configuration depicted in the Schöner globes, or on Apian's map of 1520. As no southern continent is shown Nordenskiöld assumed that the map compiler was unaware of the first circumnavigation of the globe made in 1522 but his contention cannot be supported. The projection follows the oval one of Bordone, with two cherubs energetically turning crank handles at the north and south poles.
What the Münster-Holbein map lacks in precision it gains in richness of artistic decoration. . . . ".