BELIEF IN ASIA 57 



As we have seen in the first study (p. 6), Colum- 

 bus had read (we still have preserved in the Bib- 

 lioteca Colombina at Seville his annotated copies) 

 the "Imago mundi" of Pierre d'Ailly, the "Historia 

 rerum ubique gestarum" of Aeneas Sylvius, and the 

 first Latin edition of Marco Polo's travels, entitled 

 "De consuetudinibus et condicionibus orientalium 

 regionum."^ He had also read the ''Travels of Sir 

 John Mandeville"'^ and the ''Geography" of Ptolemy.^ 

 Moreover, we have to assist us in a study of Colum- 



3 Justin Winsor, edit. : Narrative and Critical History of America, 

 8 vols., Boston, 1884-89; reference in Vol. 2, pp. 26-33. 



Vignaud, Histoire critique, Vol. i, pp. 95-104. 



Postille. In: Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati dalla R. Com- 

 missione Colombiana pel Quarto Centenario dalla Scoperta dell'America, 

 6 parts in 14 vols., Rome, 1892-96; reference in Part I, \'ol. 2, pp. 

 291-470. 



Biblioteca Colombina: Catalogo de sus libros impresos, Seville, 1888- 

 1916, Vol. I, pp. 49-69; Vol. 2, pp. vii-xliv; Vol. 5, p. 51. 



4 First published in French between 1357 and 137 1. See J. O. Halli- 

 well, edit. : The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville, Kt. 

 Reprinted from the Edition of A. D. 1725, London, 1839. 



5. The "Geography" ("Geographike hyphegesis") of the Greek geog- 

 rapher Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria (ca. 150 A.D.), which exerted 

 so profound an influence on the geographical thought of the later Middle 

 Ages, was probably first printed, in Latin, in Vicenza in 1475. The 

 first printed edition to be accompanied by maps was that published in 

 Rome in 1478. Columbus possessed a copy of this edition (Raccolta, 

 Part L Vol. 2, p. 523). Although the work as originally written by 

 Ptolemy was probably accompanied by maps, the maps in the printed 

 edition are presumably independent compilations by medieval com- 

 mentators from the specific data as to geographical positions given in 

 the text. The first of these maps, reproduced in Fig. 3, is the most im- 

 portant as it shows Ptolemy's conception of the then known world. — 

 The standard critical editions of the text are those by C. F. A. Nobbe, 

 3 vols., Leipzig, 1843-45, new edition 1888-1913, and by Charles Muller 

 (only Books I-V of a total of eight), with Latin translation, 2 vols, and 

 atlas, Paris, 1883 and 1901. 



