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Description

A fascinating ephemeral document from the history of the history of cartography; a contemporary German-language newspaper account of Professor Joseph Fischer's rediscovery of the famous Waldseemüller Universalis Cosmographia (and several other great maps) in Schloss Wolfegg in Germany.

The discovery of Waldseemüller's wall map of the world had been prophesied by some in the history of cartography community for years, but it was not until Fischer made a stop at the Wolfegg Castle to look for maps in 1902 that the map was found. It was a watershed moment in the history of cartography and significantly influenced the study of early world maps thereafter.

The Waldseemüller map along with the Carta Marina and Durer celestial map that accompanied it are all now in the Library of Congress.

This newspaper sheet was in the collection of Edward Luther Stevenson, the eminent map historian and colleague of Professor Fischer.

The Edward Luther Stevenson Collection

Edward Luther Stevenson was among the most important scholars of early cartography active at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. He was responsible for numerous cartobibliographic books, including the first translation of Ptolemy to English, as well as a series of impressive facsimile maps produced while he was at the Hispanic Society of New York. Dr. Stevenson viewed facsimiles as integral to the study of early cartography, and he committed himself to building an unparalleled collection of photographs of early maps and globes.  Much of his collection was donated to Yale University after his death (click on the title link above for about that), but the present item comes from a large collection of photos, manuscripts, and related material that were part of Stevenson's library, but were not donated to Yale. It is truly an impressive collection and many of the items, though reproductions, have serious antiquarian merit. As Alexander O. Vietor said about Stevenson collection that went to Yale "this is the stuff of which great libraries are made."

Condition Description
Paper browned and friable with some losses at the edges. One sheet printed front and back (only the front is illustrated here) with a horizontal split down the middle. Please be aware that the document is not easily handled outside of its mylar sleeve.