’, published in Florence in 1482: the third printed atlas, and the first in Italian, with a commentary composed in verse, and is the first printed map to be based on Ptolemy's second projection, in which both parallels and meridians are shown curved to convey the spherical nature of the Earth. The map was printed on two copper plates. It is surrounded by twelve finely engraved windheads denoting the direction of the twelve classical winds.  



 was a Florentine humanist, pupil of Argyropoulos and Landino, and a member of the Academia Platonica of Marsilio Ficino, who added a short paragraph in Latin to his ‘

’, addressed to Fedrigo de Montefeltro (1422–1482), to whom Berlinghieri dedicated the work. Berlinghieri had originally intended to dedicate it to the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II.

“Although the world map which adorned the first pages of the section of maps in Berlinghieri’s ‘

’ remained tied to the Ptolemaic conception of the “oikoumene” [i.e. the world known to the Ancient Greeks], its utilisation of the new techniques of print culture produced an image of remarkable visual clarity and geographical precision, which surpassed previous attempts to re-create the Ptolemaic ‘oikoumene’" (Brotton 1997). 

The very fine engraving of the map has been attributed by Boorsch to the Florentine engraver and map seller Francesco Rosselli, via the study of the engraved letters, which, much like handwriting, is an indicator of individuality in cartographic style. Rosselli (1445–1513) was one of the leading engravers and painters of miniatures of his day. His engraving style was heavily influenced by the great Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. The windheads on the present map are redolent of the Zephyr depicted in Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’. 
 

This gorgeous map in vibrant original hand colour, is from 

'. The wonderful engraving is attributed to Francesco Rosselli.  Energetic windheads surround the world on a Ptolemaic projection showing the climes, hundreds of place-names, and detailed depictions of mountains, rivers and other geographical features.

It is very rare to find this map in colour; the pigments likely include lapis lazuli and would have been very costly.

A magnificent example, the only known with contemporary hand-colour, each sheet with an unusually wide inner margin, which are more often found trimmed so that the image aligns more closely. Published separately, and in the third printed atlas, the first in Italian, or any vernacular language, and the first printed map to be based on Claudius Ptolemy's second “bee-hive” projection.

 engraved Ptolemaic map of the world, on two sheets with wide margins, joined, with superb contemporary hand-colour in full. 

Berlinghieri's Ptolemaic World Map in Contemporary Colour