With The World Map In Mirror Image
Beautiful Large Woodcut of Printer's Shop on Title
Second Badius edition of an early 5th century A.D. treatise on Neoplatonic philosophy in the form of a commentary on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, with extensive incidental remarks on cosmology and the sciences. Also included are the Saturnalia by Macrobius, a dialogue on various subjects set at a banquet during the Saturnalian festival; and De die natali by Censorinus, on miscellaneous topics relating to conception, birth, and chronology.
Includes (on folio 28) a fine example of Macrobius' important Medieval world map, first published in Brescia in 1483. The present example is a mirror image of the earliest state, with the island of Britain at the top right-hand corner. The inhabited world north of the Equator is balanced by a southern continent and divided from it by water. Decorated with many wind heads. An early world delineation following the classical T-O prototype.
The essential point of the map of Macrobius was that the earth was the home of two, or four, separate worlds. The Afro-Eurasian continent was balanced by an Antipodean land mass on the other side of an impassable torrid zone. Marked with climatic-zones derived from Ptolemy's climate, and, unlike many other medieval maps, they are oriented with North at the top. Since nothing could be known about the Antipodean Continent, except for its general size, shape, and location, it was simply sketched in a general way. The ecumene, however, is shown with some interesting details. The Mediterranean Sea divides the lands, and each continent is labeled. The countries of Spain, France, England and Italy are labeled.
The works of Macrobius, a fifth-century AD Roman philosopher, were of great popularity throughout the Middle Ages. His neoplatonic commentary on Cicero includes, among many references to the pseudo-sciences, a geographic concept which is different from that of Ptolemy. The book containes 18 large woodcut illustrations and diagrams and about 180 nice woodcut initials.
In the Middle Ages 'In somnium scipionis' was highly popular because Macrobius' idea of the geography of the world differed very much from Ptolemy's. Macrobius explained that a northern continent faces the southern continent and that an ocean divides them. This theory is illustrated on the map in the work. It uses passages from Cicero to construct the most satisfactory and widely read Latin compendium on Neoplatonism that existed during the Middle Ages. It also became a popular guide to science featuring lengthy excursions on Pythagorean number lore, cosmography, world geography and the harmony of the spheres.
As noted by Shirley:
The works of Macrobius, a fifth-century AD Roman philosopher, were of great popularity throughout the Middle Ages. His neoplatonic commentary on Cicero includes, among many references to the pseudo-sciences, a geographic concept which is different from that of Ptolemy. The inhabited world north of the Equator is balanced by a southern continent and divided from it by water. Among the roughly 150 manuscripts recorded by Destombes dating from 1200 to 1500 AD nearly 100 contain a simple map illustrating Macrobius's theories.
Rarity
This work is quite rare in the market. Only 5 examples noted in RBH.