THE REVIVAL OF PTOLEMY 71 



disseminated, through the recently invented printing press 

 and the technique of engraving on copper plates. 



Also at work in Florence during these years was Francesco 

 Berlinghieri, who prepared a rhyming version of the 'Geo- 

 graphy' and accompanied it with an important set of maps, 

 including a number of modern maps much superior to those 

 of Nicholaus Germanus, being related to the Massajo and 

 Laurenziana types. The first edition was published at Florence 

 in 1482. 



Finally there was one other copyist engaged on the 

 'Geography', Henricus Martellus. A splendid MS. of his is 

 preserved in the National Library at Florence; it contains 

 thirteen modem maps, but is probably later than the earliest 

 printed editions. The map of France and northern Italy is 

 particularly striking. The Alps are elaborately drawn in an 

 'oyster shell' design, outlined and ribbed in dark brown with 

 a lighter brown and white body. Some summits have flat 

 green tops with small tree symbols. Martellus, who was also 

 the copyist of an important atlas now in the British Museum, 

 was of German origin, but nothing more is known of him. 



Thus in the mid-fifteenth century four cartographers were 

 engaged in multiplying copies of the 'Geography' and its 

 maps: P. del Massajo, c. 1458-72; Nicholaus Germanus, 

 1464-71; Francesco Berlinghieri, and Henricus Martellus, 

 about 1480. It is significant that the first three had connexions 

 with Florence. 



The first printed edition of the 'Geography', without maps, 

 was published at Vicenza in 1475, but probably before that 

 date experiments were already being made in engraving maps 

 on metal plates, from which large numbers could be printed. 

 The lead in this work was taken by Conrad Sweynheym in 

 Rome, and his labours finally bore fruit in the magnificent 

 Rome edition of 1478. It however was anticipated by the 

 Bologna edition of 1477. (The title page is erroneously dated 

 1462.) The maps for this were drawn by Taddeo Crivelli, an 

 accomplished miniaturist and draughtsman, who had been 

 attracted from Ferrara to Giovanni Bentivoglio's court at 

 Bologna. Crivelli was no doubt aware of the acclaim which 

 Nicholaus Germanus had won by the presentation of his 



