One of the earliest printed maps of the British Isles

The British Isles from the first German edition of Ptolemy, a trapesium with metal-type lettering within a coloured border, with Scotland orientated eastwards and Ireland too far north. On the verso is a Latin-text description, within a wood-engraved border. Ptolemy of Alexandria published his 'Geographia' in the Second century AD, when Britain was at the edge of the known world; however the earliest surviving manuscript dates from the 12th or 13th centuries, so it is uncertain whether he compiled maps himself or they were created later from his writings later. The maps of this edition were based on a manuscript atlas prepared by Dom Nicolaus Germanus of Breslaw for Pope Paul II (1464-71): it was sent to Ulm for copying but was never returned, and now is in Schloss Wolfegg. The first edition of Ptolemy with printed maps was published in Bologna in 1477: this edition was only five years later, the first to use woodcuts and first illustrated edition to be printed outside Italy.