This map was first published by Fries in 1522 with the title 'Generale Ptho' in a banner above the map, and only windhead names in the border. Another edition was made by Johannes Grüninger and Johannes Koberger in Strasbourg in 1525, which featured the same title banner, but with the addition of windheads and clouds in the border. Another edition was printed by Melchior and Gasper Treschel in Lyons in 1535 without the title-banner.

Fries’ world map is a reduced and unedited version of Waldseemüller's world map included in his edition of Ptolemy’s ‘

’ of 1513. The world map maintains Ptolemaic projection and many of the traditional features, such as the ‘Mare Congelatum’ in the north, the climatic divisions, and lines of longitude and latitude. There is no reference to the Americas or the newly discovered islands in the Pacific. 

The Sunderland Collection

Enhanced with original hand colour, this world map is a reduced reissue of Martin Waldseemüller’s famous 1513 map. It was published in 1535 by Laurent Fries for his edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’. Fries’ version is embellished with decorative details lacking in previous editions. Windheads surrounding the map are particularly animated, sporting a range of distinctive hats and headscarves, and floating amidst puffy, energetic clouds.

The rarity of this map attests in part to a controversy surrounding Fries' 1535 edition of 'Geographia'. It was edited by Michael Villanovanus, also known as Michael Servetus, a Spanish theologian and polymath who was later accused of heresy and burnt at the stake in 1553. Of the forty-some allegations against Servetus, one was a commentary on Fries’ map of Palestine that questioned the fertility of the region. As a result, copies of the ‘Geographia’ was burnt with Servetus and the controversial passage was stripped from later editions.

The 1535 edition of Fries’ ‘Geographia’, from which this world map derives, was the first to be edited by the polymath Michael Servetus (d.1553). Servetus was known for his writings the challenged the Holy Trinity and the practice of infant baptism. He was charged with heresy and was burnt at the stake in 1553 on the orders of John Calvin, along with many copies of his book. The offending passage was not actually written by Servetus and had appeared previously in Fries’ 1522 and 1525 editions of Ptolemy's 'Geographia'. It was unsurprisingly omitted from the last edition of 1541.

This Ptolemaic world map from the Michael Servetus edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s 'Geographia' (1541), and presented in superb contemporary hand colouring.

Fries’ Reduction of Waldseemüller’s Ptolemaic Map