[Clavdii Ptholomei Cosmographi ...] : Beatissimo Patri Pavlo Secvndo Pontifici Maximo. Donis Nicolavs Germanvs

Nicolaus, Ptolemaeus, Claudius, Jacobus, Schnitzer, Johann · 1486 · opera et expensis iusti de Albano De Venetiis per provisorem svvm Iohannem Reger · 156 pictures

This is a 1486 Venice edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia, printed by Johann Reger for Iusti de Albano and dedicated to Pope Paul II by the German cartographer Nicolaus Germanus. The pictures are hand-coloured decorative initials, each a large capital letter framed in green with pink, gold and cream acanthus scrollwork beside black-letter Latin text. A designer could take from them the layered illuminated-initial style of early printed books, with its interlaced foliage and flat colour blocks.

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