Sexta Europae Tabula

Two-color woodcut, 1511. Magnificent proof, printed on two sheets of contemporary laid paper then joined together, in excellent condition.

Very rare map of Italy from Ptolemy's Geography, published in Venice by Bernardo Silvano from Eboli and Giacomo Peuci from Lecco.

This edition of the book of Ptolemy is totally different from the other printed in Italy. This is the only treaty Ptolemaic having the maps made by woodcut, and printed in two colors: red and black. In addition, contrary to all other atlas was built on both sides of the map as a real book. From a strictly scientific point of view, this edition of Geography maintains the royalties certainly archaic, referring to the fifteenth-century manuscripts, thus taking a step back from all the great innovations of the period mapping.

However, some scholars underline the fact that this maps represents the original attempt to correct the imperfections of the elements Ptolemaic, in fusion with the new concepts of hydrographic charts.

Bernardo Silvano, geographer and humanist of the sixteenth century was born in Eboli around 1465. His name was unknown until the last century because it was confused with that of the Portuguese Bernard de Silva - born in Evora in Portugal - probably due to the erroneous interpretation of the adjective "Eboliensis" for "Eborensis", the ancient name of the city of Evora. His most important work, a precious manuscript in-quarto parchment containing a collection of Ptolemaic maps illuminated where the last sheet reads: "Former workshop: Bernardi Eboliensis, AD 1490 ", is preserved at the National Library in Paris. Map of great rarity and of considerable historical interest.