Berlinghieri’s Geography Unveiled. By Robert H. J. Peerlings and Frans Laurentius

This self-published volume is dedicated to understanding the production methods of the printed atlas completed by Niccolò Tedesco (Nicolaus Germanus) in 1482. The atlas is comprised of the Septe giornate della Geografia by the Florentine Francesco di Niccolò Berlinghieri, written between 1465 and early 1479, and 31 geographical tables: 26 Ptolemaic maps plus four tabulae novae (’new maps’ of Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, France, and Palestine) and a planisphere. Berlinghieri’s text was inspired by Ptolemy’s Geography and written in the Tuscan vernacular in the terza rima (tercets with interlocking rhyme scheme). The geographical maps are among the first printed in Italy in large format.