In-folio (36,5 x 23,5 cm), 12 ff, 52 ff (maps), 1575 pages. Illustrated with 26 double woodcut maps at the beginning of the volume (Vortextkarten), 2 folding and 67 double page woodcut views and city maps, also about 1000 woodcuts in text. Portrait of the author in woodcut on title page, lower corner of the title page cut and repaired. Slightly yellowed, only a few leaves browned, but a nice and complete copy. Contemporary blind stamped pigskin binding, with stamps of Lucretia and Justitia, edges blue, spine with 6 raised bands, lower end of spine bumped, one corner used
Provenance: Die Katte Zolchow'sche Bibliothek, with stamp on fly leaf and verso of title page, also a red chinese stamp on the title page and on verso of the last page (below the printer's device). The earliest German description of the World, first published in 1544, this 19th German edition with the same maps as the 1598-edition. It was one of the most popular books of the 16th century, mostly because of the woodcuts, some of which were made by Hans Holbein the younger, Urs Graf a.o. Ref. Burmeister 84