Title from a3 verso.

Title and text preceded by five pages containing a dedicatory letter from the author to Matthaeus Bossus and the reply of Bossus to the author.

Imprint dervied from colophon (r3 verso): Impressit Florenti[ae] Antonius Miscominus Anno Salutis .M.CCCCLXXXXIII. Nonis Iuniis. Miscomini's woodcut device found on leaf r6v in some copies.

Collation: 4to: áþ b-q́ı ŕœ [$4 (-a1,2, r4) signed]; 130 leaves, unnumbered.

Chancery quarto; double columns on r4 recto-r6 verso, b5 recto: single column, 26 lines, with first letter of paragraph set out and with printed marginalia, 143 x 84 (88 including first letter in margin; 112 including both first letter in margin and marginalia); types: 112R; initial spaces with guide letters.

With a T-O map (circle divided by a T into the three continents, with Asia in the top hemisphere), on leaf a4v, and above it a diagram of the six zones of the world, both consisting of type, printed in black, divided and framed within a composition of rules printed in red; on leaf q5r is a similarly composed diagram of the climatic zones, with the type set vertically reading up. See T. Campbell, The earliest printed maps, 1472-1500, no. 84 (page 112), describing the red framing as woodcut, and the map as having "the narrow technical distinction of being the first to be printed in more than one colour."

Catalogue of books printed in the XVth century now in the British Museum, VI, 642

Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, M18351

Goff, F.R. Incunabula in American libraries, L218

Incunabula short title catalogue, il00218000

cataloged 20190731 jm

condition reviewed 20190913 cl