Waldseemuller’s 1513 map of the British Isles after Ptolemy in contemporary colour

A rare example of the first issue of Wäldseemüller's map of the British Isles according to Claudius Ptolemy, published in Johannes Schott's edition of the 'Geographia'. Scotland is depicting veering sharply to the east, a distortion caused by Ptolemy's mis-measuring of the length of the Mediterranean, which he used as the baseline of his map of the world. Ireland is shown too far north. This map was reissued only once, in 1520. with the title above the map removed, 'Oceanus Duecalledonius' changed to 'Oceanus Duecalledon' and ' Germaniae Magne Pars' altered to 'Germaniae Magna'. New, smaller blocks were cut for another edition of Ptolemy in 1522. Martin Wäldseemüller (c.1470-1520) is famous as being the first cartographer to use the name 'America' on a printed map, in 1507. His work on this edition of Ptolemy included an appendix of 20 'modern' maps, which is often described as the first modern atlas.