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[Honterus Johannes]: Rudimenta Cosmographica. Tiguri [Zurich], 1546. Apud Froschouerum. [64] p. (including: back of the title page blank and 4 blank pages) [65-92] p. (woodcut map pages engraved in wood by Henrich Vogtherr. 3 p. star map: "Circuli sphaerae cum v. zonis.; Ordo planetarum cum aspectibus. ; Regiones et nomina ventorum" and 13 woodcut maps: "Universalis Cosmographia. ; Hispania. ; Gallia.; Germania. ; Polonia, Sarmatia, Tartaria, Scythia. ; Hungary, Dacia, Thrace, Bosna, Dalmatia. ; Macedonia, Achaia. ; Adriaticum, Tyrrhenum. ; Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia.; Asia minor. ; Arabia, Tartaria, India. ; Africa, Aethopia. ; Sicilia." ) (+ 1 page of woodcuts: a leaf with the inscription Circuli Sphaerae Cum v. Zonis from a later edition of Rudimenta Cosmographia. Blank page on verso. 98x157 mm.) - -- - No binding. 23 leaves 180 x 145 mm. (1 leaf: 4 pages) Leaves carefully professionally restored at the centre of the previous fold. Gap at the bottom of the title page 70x28 mm. restored with new paper. Carefully prepared for binding. Third edition of "Rudimenta Cosmographica". First complete edition in Zurich. - -- - Johannes Honter (Latinized as Johann Honterus or Ioannes Honterus; Hungarian ones as János; 1498 1549) was a Transylvanian Saxon, renaissance humanist, Protestant reformer, and theologian. Honter is best known for his geographic and cartographic publishing activity, as well as for implementing the Lutheran reform in Transylvania and founding the church. Born in Brasow (German: Kronstadt, today Brasov, Romania), Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, he studied at the University of Vienna between 1520 and 1525, graduating with a magister artium title. As the Ottomans approached Vienna in 1529 (see Siege of Vienna), Honter moved first to Regensburg, and, in 1530, he registered at the Kraków's Jagiellonian University (in Poland) as "Johannes Georgii de Corona, artium magister Viennensis" (Corona is medieval Latin for Brasov). It was in Krakow that he published his first books, a Latin grammar and cosmography manual (Rudimenta Cosmographica, 1530 Krakow). Between 1530 and 1532 he lived in Basel and practiced wood engraving, notably designing two star maps that already show his advanced skills in the craft. In 1542, in Brasov, he printed a new version of his cosmography manual, this time in verse, under the name Rudimenta Cosmographica. He believed that verse would help students remember information contained in the book. Additionally, the book contains 13 maps, engraved by Honter himself. The maps show all known parts of the world. The Rudimenta was so successful that no less than 39 editions of it were printed in Brasov, Zurich, Antwerp, Basel, Rostock, Prague, and Cologne. The book was last reprinted in 1602, but sections of it have been included in other books up to 1692. It can be considered the first European-wide manual. Modern point of view the first geography text book with pocket atlas.
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