http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Laurentii

Niccolo Tedesco or Nicolaus Laurentii, Alemanus
worked as printer in Florence 1474 - 1485 and combined copperplate with printing, made the Berlinghieri map for Francesco Berlinghieri (1482), this called a friend of Lorenzo and son of a merchant, who had a lifelong cooperation with the Medici, but died in 1480. As the business wasn't finished correctly, Lorenzo de Medici sued the children of the merchant in 1486.

Niccolo Laurentii Tedesco is said to have been from Breslau, which has quite a distance to Reichenbach, where the other Nicolaus Germanus had been monk in a Benedectine abbey.

But: Nicolaus Alemanus in 1464 in Florence (mentioned by Durand) ... this might fit. This made "Tabulae etc." of 12 houses, and as I got it, it appeared in ...

http://books.google.com/books?id=bXAxRO ... 22&f=false

... together with some other writing, also from Cusanus.
Whereby I start to think about the coincidence of Nicolaus in Florence and the appearance of 12 planet gods (calendar with "good" engravings, recently discussed in Finiguerra context) in the same year 1464. Difficult to estimate in the current state, what these tabulae were.

His start as a printer is remarked as "1477", but I found this:

http://istc.bl.uk/search/search.html?op ... rowse=true

... which speaks of end of 1474 / begin of 1475

I was puzzled by a note which told, that the Crivelli 1477 edition in its opening noted a "1462" ... which actually might be the date of the work of Nicolaus Germanus.
Also there is some talking, that a "traitor" went from the Sweynheim team to the Crivelli team in Bologna. This might well have been Nicolaus Germanus, which got a considerable sum from Sixtus in 1477 for his two globes, before the Ptolemy edition of Sweynheim/Bucking appeared.

From Nicolaus Germanus it is told, that he "disappeared" after 1477, although he participated somehow in the German edition of 1482 (Johann Schnitzer in Ulm). From Nicolaus Laurentii, Alemanus it is told, that he "appeared" 1477, although he already was there 1474/75, if we can trust this dating.
The "disappearance" of 1477 has some political logic, when we assume, that Germanus really had a relation to better circles of Florence (as we may assume from his printings) - the assassination of Giuliano de Medici took place April 1478 and after this had been bad times between Florence and pope Sixtus. And Nicolaus Germanus possibly had reason not to appear with this name by which he was known in Rome.

Nicolaus Germanus ... Benedectine monk, made globes and atlasses, somehow related to Florence
Nicolaus Laurentii, Alemanus ... made (or "it's said, that he made") the Berlinghieri maps, related to Florence
Sweynheim & Pannartz ... worked first in Benedectine abbey, produced Ptolemy maps

All related to maps. Possibly Nicolaus Germanus and Nicolaus Laurentii, Alemanus are the same person?

Astronomy he learned in Reichenbach. Engraving and printing he might have learnt from Sweynheim & Pannartz.

In the wiki he is said to have worked with Johannes Petri from Mainz in a nunnery ... this should have happened 1476 in Florence, as I see from this source:

http://www.gizapyramids.org/pdf%20libra ... 62to64.pdf

The installation of the Ripoli printing press shouldn't have taken too much energy - perhaps a document was only interpreted as his first appearance. But, see above, he was already active in Florence before.

Well, I don't know ... 2 pages in the Durand online text are not readable. Perhaps there's further material.

**********
!!!!!

"John of Kulmbach", the alchemist, mentioned in the Durand article, who invited an "obscure" Italian humanist Arriginus, is actually Johannes of Brandenburg, the father of Barbara of Brandenburg, wife of Ludovico Gonzaga (who arranged the congress of Mantova 1459, the same, from which Brockhaus assumed, that there the Mantegna Tarocchi was invented).
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_%28 ... ulmbach%29

Compare also: Printing press in Ferrara
http://trionfi.com/0/p/04/

Well, there are these 2 missing pages. But the person mentioned is this here, Matthias of Kemnat:

http://www.mrfh.de/uebersetzer.php?tran ... &bio_id=24

He had close letter contact with Peter Luder, who had studied in Ferrara under Guarino and with Leonello (probably the only German there in this early time), just at the time, when the Trionfi cards appeared (since around 1440 till maximal 1445, then he is recorded in Venice). Kemnat should have become acquainted to him in Heidelberg ca. 1456-58.
Kenat was friend of Wimpheling, who became the foe of Thomas Murner much later in Strasbourg.

So we have an astonishing close way for the astronomer monk Nicolaus in 1456 to Borso in 1466. Nicolaus knew Kemnat, Kemnat knew Luder, Luder knew Borso.

*****************
Borso 1466 asked an astrologer, if Nicolaus' work is worth the money. The name of the astrologer appears as "Pietro Bono Avogaro". This is mentioned here ...

http://books.google.com/books?id=QfYiWv ... ro&f=false

... he participated in the Crivelli edition together with Girolamo Manfredi - Galeotto Marzio - Cola Montane (!!! who was involved in the murder of Galeazzo Maria) (at another place called Cola Martino ? typo ?) and worked as astrologer for Borso and Ludovico Sforza.
Well, a rather strange story ... read yourself. Another source notes also "perhaps Filippo Beroaldo".

Avogaro (Ferrara) is also noted as a medical doctor, Girolamo Manfredi (Ferrara/Bologna) as another astrologer. Galeotto Marzio (Ferrara, Bologna, Padova, Hungary) worked as humanist, physician and astronomer, also for Matthias Corvinus in Hungary. He was in prison in Venice and a book of him was burnt. Filippo Beroaldo (Bologna, Paris) was a writer. Cola Montane is well known as a teacher of rhetoric in Milan, who hated Galeazzo and arranged his murder. Galeotto hated Filelfo and another Milanese humanist.

Avogaro and Manfredi are said to have predicted the murder of Galeazzo. Galeazzo didn't love that.

Nicolaus Germanus isn't mentioned.


*********
http://www.mapforum.com/02/ptolemy.htm#rome

Based on Jacobo d'Angelo's translation of Ptolemy's text, which was proofed by Pietro Bono and Girolamo Manfredi, and then corrected by Galleoto Marzio and Nicolo di Guggio, with a final revision carried out by Filippo Beroaldo; the maps were compiled by Bono and Manfredi, and drawn by Taddeo Crivelli.

Here a new name appears, "Nicolo di Guggio", a person, who otherwise not exists in the web. ???? Wrong reading of "Nicolaus Germanus" ????

*********
I found this:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jBcAAA ... is&f=false




I found the remark of the printer interesting.

http://www.polona.pl/dlibra/doccontent2?id=61

This seems to be the Ptolomy edition of Nicolaus Germanus


http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/

Might be useful. Catalog of Inkunablen.

What a load of garbage you posted, Huck! I feel like a dumpster-diver, if you know the expression. Well, I exaggerate a little. The tastiest morsel was your link to the Germanus maps, about which more later. (I couldn’t figure out the other link in your last post.) The scans of Germanus are of his first rescension, just the one we want, as they are the basis for the Italian productions (whereas Ulm was based on the third rescension). And yes, 1462 is probably the date of the Germanus.

But first another commentary on the garbage. Here is Skelton on the Bologna project (from his bibliographic note to its facsimile edition):

On 8 September 1474 a partnership agrement was concluded at Bologna between Filippo Balduino, the chancellor of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, tyrant of Bologna, and four other men—a bookseller, a miniaturist and two printers—for the preparation of a printed edition of the ‘opus Cosmographie Tolomei’; and in April 1477, their work being then presumably ready for the press, the partners signed a contract with Domenico de’ Lapi, who was to print 500 copies of the text and plates.

De’ Lapi, Skelton says, was a miniaturist recently turned printer. (So he might have been involved in the engraving, since the work is so bad.) The printing was delayed due to revisions, which is where the “astrologers” come in.

More Skelton:

The parties to the agreement with Balduino on 8 September 1474 were Giovanni degli Accursi, a bookseller, Ludovico and Domenico de’ Ruggeri, printers, and the well-known miniaturist Taddeo Crivelli.

In Ferrara, before 1471, Crivelli had executed commissions for Germanus, Skelton says. There is no hard evidence that Crivelli was involved in the final production of 1477. He also entered into a contract on 22 April 1474 with Franceso dal Pozzo (Puteulanus), reader in poetry and rhetoric at the University of Bologna “ad faciendum mapamondos impresso seu ad forma”: to make printed or engraved world maps. Nothing is known to have come of that earlier contract. Crivelli is not mentioned in the 1477 end-product, nor is anyone as engraver.

Skelton repeats the rumor about someone being stolen from Sweynheim, saying that according to Lyman (1941), he had learned engraving there and he was probably Crivelli. That seems to me absurd, on two counts. First, the trees on the Bologna map don’t look anything like Crivelli’s, and second, anyone who had learned from Sweynheim would at least know how to spell “Germania.” (The “revisers” and “correctors” and “revisers” obviously did not. These were Manfredi, Bono, Marzo, Montano, and Beroaldo, according to the 1477 “address to the reader.”) So Germanus is out, too, obviously.

Here is a portion of Germanus’s manuscript map of Southern Germany, from your link:



And here is a part of the corresponding engraved Bologna map, a smaller section, just the lower half of the previous map, because I wanted to make the trees obvious. Notice also how the engraver makes mountains: they are just a blank spot with an irregular oval around it. But the oval is made like the "precipices" we saw on that thread, from the 6 added PMB cards and the Schifanoia. This way of drawing steep places might have been originally Lombard, as it occurs in the "Children of Mercury" section of "De Sphaera," from the 1450's for Francesco Sforza. Here it might be a sign of Crivelli's influence, since he was trained in Lombardy before he went to Ferrara.



And here are some genuine Crivelli trees, from the Borso Bible (well, that is who J.J.G. Alexander, in Italian Renaissance Illuminations, says did them (p. 77); conceivably they could be by his collaborator Franco dei Russi). Notice also some perfectly decent mountains in the background.



Skelton sees Crivelli’s hand only in the wind-heads, in “the true Ferrarese style’ Hind said, and other decorative features. Well, maybe the "precipices" were by then generic and not due specifically to Crivelli.

And here is the corresponding section of the engraved map from 1482 Florence, forwhich Berlinghieri had translated Ptolemy's Latin into rhymed Italian hexameter. The only forest he shows (I include here a much larger area, of course) is the Ardenne. The trees here look to me more like they do in the Borso Bible. For the mountains, the engraver uses the same dashes that he uses for bodies of water, not very helpful when you have mountain lakes.



And finally, here is a smaller part of the corresponding section in the 1478 Rome Ptolemy, just the two forests on the Danube. I enlarged it more so you can see that there are two types of trees here, looking much like those in the Borso Bible.



And in fact there is a third type of tree nearby, also resembling the Borso Bible's, for what I think is the Schwarzwald. The other maps didn't have the Schwarzwald at all. We are finally dealing with a mapmaker who knows his German topography. And the mountains look like Crivelli mountains. (But I am not saying that Crivelli was the engraver; Crivelli was a miniaturist, how could he have learned enough under Sweynheim to do such a good job, yet then such a bad job in Bologna?)



It is these trees and mountains (the last two images) that Hind saw as similar to the "Mantegna's." I will take that up next.

... ... Garbage and dumpster-diving ... I've to protest, that's my genius way to research, ... ... and, as you'll see, not without success.

I interpret the map of Germanus as an attempt to interpret Ptolemy ... otherwise I don't understand it, that I find so much difficult names.
But let's proceed with a little garbage.

***************

http://books.google.com/books?id=tmnVub ... au&f=false

This source notes, that Nicolo Laurentii was the first, who used copperplate engraving in books. As reference is given Antonio Bettini, 1477, Monte Sante de Dio, GW2204, with 3 engravings

The database (the link, that you didn't understood) gives:

02204 Antonio da Siena : Monte santo di Dio. Florenz: Nicolaus Laurentii, 10.IX.1477. 2°
131 Bl. [12²]a–h⁸i⁹l–q⁸r. 33–35 Z. Typ. 4*:113R. 3 Kupferstiche.
Reproduktionen: Res.Publ. Unit 71.
HCR 1276. Pell 900. Pr 6114. ISTC ia00886000.
Wien Albert, NB (Bl. 1 fehlt).

Wiki to Antonio Bettini (also called Antonio of Siena), the author of this work, who still lived in 1477:

Antonio Bettini (13 June 1396-22 October 1487) was an Italian clergyman and writer.

Bettini was born in Siena in 1396. He joined the convent of San Girolamo in Siena in 1439 and worked closely with Pope Pius II. Pius made Bettini bishop of Foligno in 1461. For Pope Sixtus IV, Bettini may have traveled to France (1474) and Germany (1481). He retired to his original convent in Siena in 1486 and died a year later. Bettini was revered by later biographers and sometimes referred to as "Beato" (Blessed) (a step toward canonization), but this designation was never church-sanctioned.
Bettini was known as a prolific writer. His Monte Santo di Dio (1477) described how one could use science and virtue to reach closer to God. This work, printed in Florence by Nicolaus Laurentii is especially notable in that it is possibly the first printed work to contain copper plate engravings. These were executed by Baccio Baldini, based on designs by Botticelli.

For the moment I don't see the both other pictures.

An Italian comment ...
http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Brani_di_ ... nto_di_Dio


Nicolaus Laurentii repeated the combination copperplate engraving - book printing in 1481

07966 Dante Alighieri : La Commedia. Mit Komm. von Christophorus Landinus. Mit einer Einleitung des Verfassers und Beig. von Marsilius Ficinus. Florenz: Nicolaus Laurentii, 30.VIII.1481. 2°
LagenKust. Text von Komm. umg. 45–48 bzw. 57–60 Z. Typ. 4:114R, 5:91R. Min. f. Init. Kupferstiche. KolTit.
1. Proemio e Vita.
14 Bl. 〈i–iii〉⁸[a⁶]. 
2. Inferno.
154 Bl. a¹⁰b⁸c–e¹⁰f⁸g¹⁰hi⁸l¹⁰mn⁸o–r¹⁰s⁶. 
… Sign. b titione et deſiderio di quelle choſe che ci guidono alfine. El conſiglio e / recto et addiricto da buona conſulta
3. Purgatorio.
108 Bl. aa–gg¹⁰hh¹²llmm¹⁰oo⁶. 
… Sign. b chi ha uoluto entrare con tutta pace 
4. Paradiso.
96 Bl. 〈aaaA〉⁸B–H¹⁰I⁶L¹². 
… Sign. b nel quale ſi come uita in lui ſi lega 
Inhalt: Bl. 2b: Apologia di Dante e decrizione di Firenze. — 7b: Vita e costumi di Dante e descrizione di Firenze. — 9b: Sull’ origine della poesia. — 11b: Ficinus Marsilius: Ad Dantem congratulatio, lat. u. ital (Florentia iam diu mesta sed tandem laeta …). — 12a: Forma dell’inferno e dei giganti.
Anm.  Zu den Kupferstichen s. die Anm. im gedr. GW. — Dreyer, Peter: Botticelli’s Series of Engravings ’of 1481’. In: Print Quarterly 1(1984) S.111–115.
Reproduktionen: Res.Publ. Unit 71. München SB (http://mdz10.bib-bvb.de/~db/0003/bsb000 ... index.html). Santiago de Compostela BU (http://iacobus.usc.es/search*gag?/sBUSC ... 0%2C%2C143).
HC 5946. Sander 2311. Rhodes: Firenze 231. CBB 1223. Ce³ D-29. IBE 282. IBP 1835. IDL 1464. IGI 360. IJL² 145. Pell 4114. CRF VIII 169. CRF X 250. VB 2883. BSB-Ink D-9. Pr 6120. BMC VI 628.IC 27095. Madsen 1332. Oates 2334. Walsh: Harvard 2851–2854. ISTC id00029000.
Berlin KunstB, Kupferstichkab. Dresden SUB. Firenze AccadCrusca. Kyoto SangyoUL. München SB. Santiago de Compostela BU. Stuttgart LB. Wien Albert, NB.
Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke • http://gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/GW07966.htm • Letzte Änderung: 2009-12-14

The engraver is assumed to have been again Baccio Baldini.

Pictures are variously in the web. This should belong to this edition:
Pictures are variously in the web. This should belong to this edition:



A 3rd engagement of Nicolo Laurentii should have been the Berlinghieri Atlas, whose dating variates between 1478-1482. A comparison between ...

Nicolaus Germanus


Nicolo Laurentii


Modern reality


... shows, that in the case of Spain there are changes between the versions of Germanus and Laurentii, but the map improved, so the differences don't tell us, that Nicolaus Germanus and Nicolo Laurentii would be different persons.

What I wonder about ... that it seems, that nobody suggested that Nikolaus Germanus and Nicolo Laurentii might be the same person:

Nikolaus Alemannus, dies ist der Name, mit welchem ein deutscher Buchdrucker in Florenz, der im 15. Jahrhundert lebte, sich gewöhnlich bezeichnet. Er heißt sich in seinen Drucken übrigens öfters auch nur Nicolaus, wenn nicht gar nur N., dann aber auch wieder genauer Nicolaus Laurentii, [b)Nicolo di Lorenzo della Magna[/b] und Nicolaus diocesis uratislaviensis. Aus diesen Bezeichnungen ersieht man, daß sein Vater Laurentius (seine Familie Laurentii?) hieß und daß er aus der Diöcese Breslau stammte. Räthselhaft ist aber der Beisatz della Magna. Auf die Straße, in welcher der Drucker wohnte, kann man ihn ja nicht wol beziehen, auch nicht auf den speciellen Ort seiner Herkunft. Vermuth1ich ist [620] er durch eine eigenthümliche Metathesis aus d'Allemagna entstanden. Was nun die Drucke des N. A. betrifft, so sind 15 mit seinem Namen versehene bekannt, von welchen der früheste in das Jahr 1477 fällt, während der späteste die Jahrzahl 1486 trägt. Zu ihnen kommen drei bis vier andere, die zwar völlig undatirt sind, deren Typen aber auf unseren Buchdrucker hinweisen. Die Gesammtzahl dieser Drucke kann für jene Zeit nicht gerade als klein bezeichnet werden; aber wichtiger sind dieselben in qualitativer Hinsicht, wie schon daraus zu ersehen, daß manche derselben heute noch sehr geschätzt, ja einzelne schon mit 1000 und mehr Francs bezahlt worden sind. Nicht blos hat der Meister von verschiedenen der bei ihm erschienenen Werke Pergamentausgaben veranstaltet, er hat auch durch künstlerischen Schmuck ihren Werth zu erhöhen verstanden. Kommt ihm doch der Ruhm zu, das erste Buch mit Kupferstichen ausgegeben zu haben. Es ist dies der Libro del Monte Sancto di Dio des Antonio da Siena von 1477. Für den Zeichner dieser Kupferstiche hält man Sandro Boticello, für den Stecher Baccio Baldini (s. Brunet, Manuel du libraire 5. éd. I, 334). Neben dem genannten Werke verdienen aber noch hervorgehoben zu werden die Editio princeps von des Celsus acht Büchern de medicina von 1478, eine Dante-Ausgabe von 1481, wieder mit Kupfern, in einzelnen Exemplaren bis zu 21, und endlich des Fr. Berlinghieri Geographia (in italienischer Sprache, wie manche andere Drucke dieser Officin), die mit 31 Karten in Metallschnitt ausgestattet ist. Ob auch die letzteren die allerersten ihrer Art sind oder vielmehr diejenigen der römischen Ausgabe des Ptolemäus von 1478, ist nicht auszumachen, da der Florentiner Druck ohne Jahrzahl erschienen ist (s. Brunet a. a. O. I. 791).

From the old German biography, ADB

This says, that the suggestion, that he was of Breslau, is taken from "Nicolaus diocesis uratislaviensis", which appears in one of his printings. Further he is generally admired for the high quality of his works.

About the name of Breslau (wiki):

The city's name was first recorded in the year 1000 by Thietmar's Latin chronicle called Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon as Wrotizlawa. The first municipal seal stated Sigillum civitatis Wratislavie. A simplified name is given in 1175 as Wrezlaw, Prezla or Breslaw. The Czech spelling was used in Latin documents as Wratislavia or Vratislavia. At that time, Prezla was used in Middle High German, which became Preßlau. In the middle of the fourteenth century the Early New High German (and later New High German) form of the name Breslau began to replace its earlier versions.
The city is traditionally believed to be named after Wrocisław or Vratislav, often believed to be Duke Vratislaus I of Bohemia. It is also possible that the city was named after the tribal duke of the Silesians or after an early ruler of the city called Vratislav.
The city's name in various foreign languages include in English: Wroclaw, Hungarian: Boroszló, Italian: Breslavia, Latin: Vratislavia or Wratislavia, Hebrew: ורוצלב (Vrotsláv), Yiddish: ברעסלוי / Brasloi, Czech: Vratislav, Slovak: Vratislav or Vroclav, Belarusian: Уроцлаў (Urocłaŭ), Greek: Βρότσλαβ (Vrotslav), Russian: Вроцлав (Vrotslav); also Бреславль (Breslavl), Serbian: Вроцлав or Vroclav and Ukrainian: Вроцлав (Vrotslav). Names of Wrocław in other languages are also available.

Breslau had to suffer during the Hussites wars, which endured till the mid of the 1430's. After this period the situation still wasn't stable. In the early 1450's St. Capristanus came and burnt playing cards and Jews.
If there's a case of identity between Nicolaus Germanus and Nicolo Laurentii, then the researched person might have found its way to Reichenbach accompanying the tross of St. Capistranus.

... .-) ... Would be nice, if these two pages in Durand's report wouldn't be missing.

Two other Benedectine monks and world card makers have to be considered

Fra Mauro (Venice 1457), Camaldolese monk (a Benedectine branch)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Mauro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camaldolese

Andreas Walsperger Constance 1448, till 1442 monk in Salzburg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Walsperger

The Benedictine monks were losing in importance during the centuries. I saw 37.000 counted for 14th century, 15.000 during 15th, and 5000 after reformation (it's not clear, what and how was counted, but I understand, that the participation in dramatic way went towards 0). But it seems, that they had a considerable scientific engagement towards cartography.

*************

Ha ...
... suddenly Nicolaus Germanus - not Nicolaus Laurentii - comes from Breslau !!!!!

http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/ ... on-2.phtml
that's based on a a Sotheby article, I would assume

Tell Ptolemy
15th Century Atlas, Sotheby’s London, $1,022,130

Probably the first printed atlas to include new maps, and the first printed outside Italy, the 1482 printing at Ulm, in Southern Germany, of Ptolemy’s Geographia, was an extraordinarily ambitious production for the 15th century.

Two earlier printed editions had contained only maps based on descriptions of the world provided in the 2nd century AD by Ptolemy, but the 32 woodcut maps in the Ulm edition, all but one of them double-page, introduced new maps of Spain, Italy, France, Palestine and Scandinavia—the latter including Iceland and Greenland, which also appear for the first time on a world map. A 1482 Florence edition also included the new maps, but priority would seem to be uncertain.

The maps in all 15th-century editions are based on work by Donnus Nicolaus, a Benedictine of Breslau who in the 1460s and ’70s prepared a series of magnificent vellum atlases in Florence. These were presented to various dignitaries and the model for the printed Ulm edition was one presented to Pope Paul II. That original papal manuscript would appear to have been taken from Rome to Ulm for copying by the printer, Lienhart Holle, but never returned, as it is now preserved at Schloss Wolfegg in southern Germany.

Printing costs almost ruined Holle, and at one point the Duke of Milan wrote to the Council of Ulm on behalf of Milanese paper merchants, who were still owed very large sums for paper supplied. That a large number of the surviving copies have an Italian provenance may indicate that Holle tried to pay off his debts in kind.

Even the incomparable Wardington atlas collection, which in 2006 saw £1.9m paid for a copy of the very first printed atlas, the 1477 Bologna edition of the Geographia, did not contain a copy of the first Ulm edition. This example had full contemporary colour throughout and Sotheby’s map specialist, Cathy Slowther, feels that even at £623,250 ($1,022,130) the buyer may have had a bargain.

Well, the article doesn't mention the printer Nicolo Laurentii ... and this is from Breslau. So, either there is really a reliable information outside, that Nicolaus Germanus was really from Breslau (and Sotheby didn't realize, that Nicolaus Laurentii also was from Breslau), or they mixed some data ... .-)

But summarizing, it seems now probable, that Donni Nicolaus Germanus is the same person as Nicolaus Laurentii Alemanus ... in other words the cartographer became a printer. Well, some confirmation would be nice, still ...

Laurentii had noble persons, for whom he printed, there's Marsilio Ficino and there's Laudino, in other words, the heads of the platonic academy in Florence. The name Nicolo di Lorenzo della Magna might be a shortened Alemanus, but also transporting the
aspect, that Niccolo was regarded as a great man.
In Florence is also Toscanelli and around the time, when Laurentii becomes a printer in Florence 1474/75, Toscanelli engaged with letters to the Portuguese king to cause a journey via the West to reach Cathay, in other words China, which two decades later was attempted by Columbus.

This following text speaks of NorthWest details at the world map of Donnus, which make the analyser believe, that Donnus (= Laurentii) had information about Scandinavian extensions towards America.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Mp6qKj ... li&f=false

So, naturally Laurentii would have been an interesting talking partner to Toscanelli. However, any confirmation, that these both had anything with each other to do, is missing.

From Berlinghieri, who later financed the Florence atlas edition (printed by Nicolo Laurentii), it's known, that he attempted to take contact to Sweynheim in 1476, probably cause the use of copperplate engraving in book printing - in 1477 we have the first copperplate book made by Nicolo Laurentii (Monte Sante de Dio, described above).

********
Pannartz stopped book printing in 1476 ... likely from this the assumption arrived, that he had died. But, if the mentioned "Arnoldus Buckinck" is identical with him (as Raidel suggested), he might have taken Sweynheim's commission or helped Sweynheim, who possibly was old and sick, dropping his own business. Possibly another printer took his material and published under a new name ... so possibly one should check for a new printer in Rome.

The work of Pannartz according database:

1465 - 3
1467 - 2
1468 - 5
1469 - 10
1470 - 10
1471 - 8
1472 - 10
1473 - 7 (all with Sweynheim, last at 31.12.1473)
1474 - 1 (rest without Sweynheim)
1475 - 7
1476 - 3

The last is given with this text:
Inpressum Rome In domo nobilis uiri Petri de Maximis iuxta Campum Flore. ? Preside-te magistro Arnoldo Pannartz. Anno d?ici natalis .M.CCCC.LXXVI. Die ue­ro .xxviii. Martii. Sedente Sixto .IIII. Pontifice max. Anno eius quinto.
(and the second last - which is of february - has a similar text, also with M.CCCC.LXXVI).

... which opens my question, if M.CCCC.LXXVI might be 1477 according our new calendar (cause the dates seem to be before Eastern ... but I don't know, what "Anno eios quinto" means)

***
"Anno eios Quinto" seems to mean "in the 5th year" (of Pope Sixtus, which is mentioned before). So the dating seems in our modern sense correct 1476.

Yes, I exaggerate about the "garbage" remark. You do find interesting stuff.

Skelton, in his bibliographic note prefixing the facsimile edition of the Ulm 1482, Ptolemy, has this to say, labeling it theory (d) about the identity of Donnus Nicalaus Germanus (theory (a) is Brother Nicolaus of Reichenbach; I don't know if you need to know theories b and c):

Between 1476 and 1486 a German printer, variously styled Nicolo todescho or [/i]Nicolaus Laurentii alamannus[/i]. and stated in one colophon to be of the diocese of Breslau, produced form his press in Florence twenty-one books, including Berlinghieri's version of the [/i]Cosmographia[/i] with maps. This man had in 1471 practised as a scribe and been employed as a typesetter in Mantua.

Skelton does not give a reference for this view or comment on it. He just states it. Maybe so. At least you give references.

I have been reading recently about The Holy Mountain, I think in Lambert. I'll see what she says. The reproduction you posted is awful--it doesn't look that bad.

Well, I have looking at a lot of pictures, I have been trying to examine Hind's "final suggestion," that the engraver of the 1478 Ptolemy is the same as the engraver of the "Mantegna," from Hind's point of view. For me, this is a big job. My posts will be more notes (with some garbage, I suppose) than a tight presentation.

Hind pointed to four elements of similarity: (a) the strength of the line; (b) the lettering; (c) the hills and/or mountains; and (d) the trees. I have already talked about the lines. Yesterday at the library I looked at a couple of volumes of Hind's 1938 reproductions to confirm that many Florentine engravings 1460-1470, and engravings elsewhere 1470-1480 (Venice, Ferrara), have strong, clear lines with good contrast against a white or light gray background, and not very thick--the fine manner, as well as the broad manner.. Many do not meet this standard, to be sure. But I do not know what Skelton is talking about when he praises the 1478 Ptolemy as a breakthrough for Italian engraving in general. We have discussed the lettering to some extent, about the possibility of letter-punches being used for the "Mantegna" as well as the Ptolemy. For now I have been looking at hills, mountains, and trees.

One thing I notice about the 1478 Rome Ptolemy's hills/mountains is that they are all the same and seem pretty generic. They are more interesting than those of the 1477 Bologna and 1482 Florence, where empty ovals mean a mountain range (see my previous post). But they are not nearly as distinctive as those in the "Mantegna"', as I will exhibit below. As for the trees, what I notice in the maps is that the engraver has three types. Here they are again, just north of the Danube, and on the Rhine.





In contrast. other engraved maps only have one type, at least the 1477 Bologna and the 1482 Florence (see my previous post). The Ulm is the same, although in woodcut and with only evergreens rather than only deciduous. One of the types, the lower center forest in the upper image above, resembles those in the 1482 Florence, as pictured in my previous post. Like the 1478 Rome, and unlike the others, there are different types of trees in the "Mantegna," Two types occur in three successive cards, the three that were added to the seven virtues to make ten in that group. I say "added" because that is what it looks like. The virtue cards have no distinctive backgrounds at all, just horizon lines. Here are the three:



These trees are bunched up into a forest like in the 1478 Rome. There are more trees on the "Muse" cards, on the right below, clearly deciduous. I include also Geometria, for its hills.



So are these similarities the marks of a particular engraver, as Hind supposes, or are they more generic? I looked in a fewbooks I happened to have at hand, to see how similar the "Mantegna" and 1478 Ptolemy trees and mountains are to the same elements in other Italian art of the time. What I found surprised me. In Roetggen's Italian Frescoes: The Early Renaissance I found only one artist, out of dozens, who used similar backgrounds, namely the Florentine Benozzo Gozzoli, especially in his Procession of the Magi/i], 1459-1460. In contrast, the Schifanoia frescoes in Ferrara don't have such backgrounds at all. So here are some examples in the Magi that I find similar. If it looks like Umbria, it may be because Gozzoli had spent 1451-1455 working there. But Tuscany is similar.

Gozzolli's clouds are similar to those of the "Mantegna"'s Venus, as we see in the center below. I have also included the two other planet-scenes that have hills or trees.

Gozolli, along with many others (not only in Ferrara) has the fantastically shaped rocks that we see in the "Mantegna"'s Caliope. He also dots his hills with castles and walled cities, as the "Mantegna" does.

An area where the "Mantegna" engraver differs from the map engraver is in the representation of water: wavy lines in the "Mantegna," dashes in the map engravings (e.g. North Africa, below).

As far as other types of painting, I have only looked at miniatures. There we can see the hills already in Giovanni di Paolo's illumination for Dante's "Sphere of Venus," Canto IX of the Paradiso, which I reproduce from another book, J.J.G Alexander's Italian Renaissance Illuminations. I don't know why there are four hills, since the lady, Cunizza of Treviso, only outlived three husbands (but I suppose there was also the troubadour who rescued her from her father); she spent her old age in her mother's town of Florence, where the young Dante adored her. The illumination is from the 1440's, as it is lacking Brunneleschi's 1444 three excedra on the Cathedral, and the lantern on its dome, started 1446 (Alexander p, 52). I don't know whether Sienese artists regularly painted hills, such that when Angelo Perrasio moved from Siena to Ferrara in 1447, he might have brought the tradition with him. But I have not found such hills painted in Ferrara after his death in 1456.

In the 1450's, another appearance of hills and forests is in the Florentine miniaturist Apollonio di Giovanni's illumination of Virgil's Georgics, below and with a relevant detail below it (Alexander again). So Gozzoli had at least some company.

The only other place so far that I have found close similarity in illuminations is in a book printed 1 Aug.1471 in Venice by the German printer Vindelinus de Spira, whom I mentioned in an earlier post. He arrived in Venice around 1468 or 1469, just when Lazarelli is supposed to have bought his prints. The illumination below is by Franco dei Russi, who had collaborated with Crivelli on the Borso Bible. It is rather similar to the Borso Bible illumination I showed in my previous post.

For his part, dei Russi had moved in the early1460's to Padua; in c.1472 he moved again, to Urbino (Painted Page, p. 170; http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/art ... aker=26001). Could he have illuminated the second Urbino manuscript, the one with the "liberal arts"? Hind (1938) mentioned him as a possible engraver of the "Mantegna"--and unlike the others (Crivelli, Giraldi) Hind did not specifically reject him as a candidate for its designer. Printers contracted with illuminators who lived in various places, not necessarily the same city. For example, in 1469 Sweynheim and Pannartz in Rome contracted with a Venetian illuminator, the so-called "Master of the Putti" to illustrate their edition of Livy's History of Rome for a Venetian customer (Painted Page again).

Adding illuminations made the books more like manuscripts, as in the beginning there was much prejudice against printed books by the rich. The above frontispiece of the Sweynheim and Pannartz book not only shows an extreme example of the practice of getting books illustrated by illuminators elsewhere (Rome to Venice), but how they borrowed from themes developed in a third place. The scene at the bottom of the page is a comic variation on the Florentine Pollaiuolo's Hercules and the Giants (Painted Page, p. 166).

Another possible designer of the "Mantegna" backgrounds is an illuminator whose work appears in around 1476 in books printed by Nicolaus Jenson, who also came to Venice 1467-68, The miniaturist's signature is "Petrus V---," and nothing more is known of him (Painted Page again). This illumination was supposedly commissioned by Bona of Savoy, to show how the sad death of her husband is followed by the happy coronation of her son.

I conclude as follows. (1) If the "Mantegna" backgrounds were done in the 1460's, their designer or engraver may have been a Florentine, or at least someone familiar with Gozzoli. In the 1460's it was mainly Florentines who had the skill to do good engravings, and they got jobs in many places. (2) If the "Mantegna" backgrounds were done 1468-1469 or later, their designer could have been Dei' 'Russi or, less likely, Pietro V--, as illuminators working with the Venetian printers Jenson and de Spira. I have no particular conclusion about the engraver of the 1478 Ptolemy yet. Maybe he, too, was a Florentine admirer of Gozzoli.

To be continued.

mikeh wrote: And yes, 1462 is probably the date of the Germanus.

? How do you assume this ?

Here is Skelton on the Bologna project (from his bibliographic note to its facsimile edition):

On 8 September 1474 a partnership agrement was concluded at Bologna between Filippo Balduino, the chancellor of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, tyrant of Bologna, and four other men—a bookseller, a miniaturist and two printers—for the preparation of a printed edition of the ‘opus Cosmographie Tolomei’; and in April 1477, their work being then presumably ready for the press, the partners signed a contract with Domenico de’ Lapi, who was to print 500 copies of the text and plates.

This sounds, as if Skelton knows a document ... and as if Bentivoglio himself engaged. Or has the chancellor just the role of a notary?

De’ Lapi, Skelton says, was a miniaturist recently turned printer. (So he might have been involved in the engraving, since the work is so bad.) The printing was delayed due to revisions, which is where the “astrologers” come in.

I remember, that I met a "de Lapis" in another printing project (I didn't find the source again), in which a German printer "Vurster" was involved. The production ended bad and Vorster disappeared. Lapis worked in the project as editor and got 20 copies of the project - Lapis was called a physician then. This was ca. 1472-1474. Later Lapis appears in 15 different printings in Bologna.

Ah, I found it:

A good example of a commercial relationship between
cartolaio and printer is the case of Johann Vurster and
Cecchino da Morano. Vurster, a German who was the
first printer to work in Mantua and Modena, seems to
have been repeatedly unable to pay his creditors, and has
left a vivid trail through the courts. Not a commercial
success in Mantua, before the end of 1473 Vurster left
there for Modena, where he printed four books. The
paper for these was supplied under contract by the Modena
notary and cartolaio Cecchino; and in fact Vurster's press
was located in Cecchino's home. He published Alcha-
bitius's Libellus isagogicus in 1473, Silvaticus's Liber pan-
dectae medicinae in 1474, an edition of Virgil's works in
five hundred copies in 1475, and in January 1476 he began
work on Bartholomaeus de Salicito's Lectura super codices,
this time with Cecchino specified as partner. Shortly
thereafter, Cecchino took Vurster to court for nonpay-
ment of his debts, and seized the five hundred copies of
Virgil which apparently had served as collateral for the
loan. By July of 1479 Vurster had fled to Basel, his type
having passed to another hopeful German printer in
Modena. Vurster, like other early printers, acquired paper
and services by paying in kind: thus, his editor for the
1474 Silvaticus, the Bolognese physician Domenico de
Lapis, received twenty copies of the printed book as pay-
ment. Cecchino would have acquired part of the printed
stock for sale as his share, in each case; and he could,
we shall suggest, have enhanced a portion of these books
by having them decorated or even handsomely illuminated.
The relationship between Cecchino and Vurster in
Modena is one of the better documented cases; but it is
not, on that account, likely to have differed much from
countless other cases in other Italian cities.

You quote:

The parties to the agreement with Balduino on 8 September 1474 were Giovanni degli Accursi, a bookseller, Ludovico and Domenico de’ Ruggeri, printers, and the well-known miniaturist Taddeo Crivelli.

I found this:
http://www.malatestiana.it/manoscritti/ ... rnelli.pdf
"Una di queste società fu
quella che si costituì l’8 settembre 1474 per la realizzazione dell’edizione princeps della
Cosmographia di Tolomeo (datata erroneamente 1462, ma pubblicata nel giugno 1477),
già uscita a Vicenza nel 1475, ma senza il fondamentale corredo cartografico. Il
contratto fu redatto in studio et cancelleria Magnifici domini Johannis de Bentivoglio
dal milanese Filippo Balduini, cancelliere del Bentivoglio, da Giovanni di Baldassarre
degli Accorsi di Reggio, da Ludovico e Domenico de’Ruggeri, e da maestro Taddeo di
Niccolò de Crivelli, il principale protagonista della celebre Bibbia di Borso d’Este. In
un documento dell’aprile 1477 i suddetti, meno il Crivelli, stabilivano una convenzione
con Domenico de Lapis, già miniatore ed ora libraio ed editore, per la realizzazione
entro due mesi di cinquecento copie del testo tolemaico.[note 88]"

note 88: "L.SIGHINOLFI, I mappamondi di Taddeo Crivelli e la stampa bolognese della Cosmografia di Tolomeo, in «La Bibliofilia», X, 7, 1908, pp. 241-269. Per Domenico de Lapis vedi anche, R.BERTIERI, Editori e stampatori italiani del Quattrocento. Note bio-bibliografiche, Milano, Hoepli, 1929, p. 64; A.SORBELLI, Storia della stampa in Bologna, cit., pp. 36-38.

In Ferrara, before 1471, Crivelli had executed commissions for Germanus, Skelton says. There is no hard evidence that Crivelli was involved in the final production of 1477. He also entered into a contract on 22 April 1474 with Franceso dal Pozzo (Puteulanus), reader in poetry and rhetoric at the University of Bologna “ad faciendum mapamondos impresso seu ad forma”: to make printed or engraved world maps. Nothing is known to have come of that earlier contract. Crivelli is not mentioned in the 1477 end-product, nor is anyone as engraver.

Search for "DAL POZZO FRANCESCO" at:
http://biblioteche2.comune.parma.it/lasagni/daa-daz.htm
.... he has a long Italian article there. A short note about "Nel 1474 stipulò un contratto con T. Crivelli per la pubblicazione di mappamondi a stampa." Interestingly he is occupied with a Trionfi project in 1474/75.

It seems plausible to assume, that dal Pozzo detected the mapmaker qualities of Crivelli in April 1474 and that this led to the contract of 8th of September in the same year (in which dal Pozzo not participated). Dal Pozzo seems to have been near to Filippo Beroaldo il Vecchio ... which later has the final word in the real
1477 edition.

Skelton repeats the rumor about someone being stolen from Sweynheim, saying that according to Lyman (1941), he had learned engraving there and he was probably Crivelli. That seems to me absurd, on two counts. First, the trees on the Bologna map don’t look anything like Crivelli’s, and second, anyone who had learned from Sweynheim would at least know how to spell “Germania.” (The “revisers” and “correctors” and “revisers” obviously did not. These were Manfredi, Bono, Marzo, Montano, and Beroaldo, according to the 1477 “address to the reader.”) So Germanus is out, too, obviously.

Well ... it was not Sweynheim's idea to make the Ptolemy. The project comes from the discussion in the papal circle. Sweynheim and Pannartz have been working and working, but they got problems in 1473. Background is probably the papal change from Paul II. to Sixtus IV. With Paul II they had clear instructions and help, but they were left alone, when Sixtus IV and his clique entered his empire, which had enough to do to realize their own interests. So Bussi wrote a letter and documented the bad state of the printers.
Then the papal clique considered and changed the conditions ... I would assume, but probably I've read it in this way somewhere. Sweynheim should make the Ptolemy and Pannartz should proceed printing (although he made only one print in 1474). This should be documented somewhere ... I'll take a look, perhaps I find something. Negative ... but I remember a German report from 19th century, when they've found some information of interest.

The great interest in the Ptolemy was already given with 1450, leading later to the Bessarion - George of Trebizond debate. Bessarion took Regiomontanus with him from Austria. Regiomontanus was invited in the year 1474 - this all points to a slowly developing interest, which suddenly turned very actual, when it was realized, that maps might have printable with new technology.

mikeh wrote:Yes, I exaggerate about the "garbage" remark. You do find interesting stuff.

Skelton, in his bibliographic note prefixing the facsimile edition of the Ulm 1482, Ptolemy, has this to say, labeling it theory (d) about the identity of Donnus Nicalaus Germanus (theory (a) is Brother Nicolaus of Reichenbach; I don't know if you need to know theories b and c):

Between 1476 and 1486 a German printer, variously styled Nicolo todescho or [/i]Nicolaus Laurentii alamannus[/i]. and stated in one colophon to be of the diocese of Breslau, produced form his press in Florence twenty-one books, including Berlinghieri's version of the [/i]Cosmographia[/i] with maps. This man had in 1471 practised as a scribe and been employed as a typesetter in Mantua.

Skelton does not give a reference for this view or comment on it. He just states it. Maybe so. At least you give references.

Nonetheless it's a sort of possible theory-competition, and likely Skelton speaks with a sort of reason. But there are doubts, if he has the better interpretation.
It's somehow a little bit unlikely, that two Nicolaus of Germany engaged in world maps in grandios manner - and that their biographical lifes somehow fit together ... for example it might be, that Donnus served for some time as scribe and typesetter in Mantova. Why not, if he was interested to learn printing?
Possibly he worked for Vurster, the dominating printer in Mantova in this time? There is no edition for 1471, but ...

1472, Mantova ... "Kremsmünster Benedikt" is noted in an Aesop-Version
1473, Mantova ... "Göttweig Benedikt" is mentioned in an Arnoldus de Villa Nova text

It seems, that two abbeys of the Benediktines got editions of the first versions of Vurster's production ... just in the time, when the Doppelgänger of Nicolaus Germanus was working as scribe and typesetter in Mantova.

Vurster made totally 15 editions between 1972-79 ... in the descriptions appear not many places, where these editions have gone to. Two time Benedictine abbeys, that is too much for an accident. Göttweig and Kremsmünster are abbeys in Austria, not too far from Reichenbach, were Donnus had been earlier.

This scribe should have been Donnus Nicolaus Germanus.

If you wish to control it:
http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/
Go to left menu, click "Drucker"; Name, Ort, Datum". A formular appears. Search in "Liste von Druckernamen" for "Vurster". Click it. You'll get 15 results.

Mantova (=Mantua) had 9 titles in 1472 and 5 in 1473.

.. ... I start to like databases

But I do not know what Skelton is talking about when he praises the 1478 Ptolemy as a breakthrough for Italian engraving in general.

... .-) ... me too. But we're working in the fragments of an old battle with the name "who invented copperplate engraving", Italy or Germany/Netherlands, part of the other and greater battle, who invented letter printing. Meanwhile it turns out, that it were Chinese and Koreans ... .-) ... as far letter printing is concerned. So I would say, we have many datings running around, which make Italian prints a little too early.

Baccio Baldini

Descrizione
"Bulino, circa 1470. Della serie Profeti e Sibille. Esemplare nel terzo stato di tre, con la lastra ridotta e l'aggiunta del numero 9 in basso a destra. Magnifica prova, impressa su carta vergata coeva priva di filigrana, rifilata all'interno della line del rame, manchevole di circa 3 mm per lato, strappo perfettamente restaurato, per il resto in ottimo stato di conservazione. Come per molte opere del XV secolo, gli esemplari completi dell'impronta del rame sono pratiamente introvabili. Tutto quello che si conosce su Baccio Baldini deriva dalle Vite del Vasari; allievo di Maso Finiguerra, fu orefice, niellista, incisore e disegnatore attivo a Firenze, dove muore nell'incendio del 1487. La sua produzione deriva quasi per intero da disegni ed invenzioni di Sandro Botticelli. La serie dei Profeti e Sibille consta di 36 lastre, di cui dodici raffiguranti le Sibille e le restanti i principali profeti dell'Antico Testamento. L'opera trae ispirazione dal testo Dell'Annunciazione di Nostra Donna, 1471, dello scrittore fiorentino Feo Belcari, rappresentata con grande successo in forma teatrale in occasione della visita di Galeazzo Sforza a Firenze. I versi che si trovano nella prima edizione della serie sarebbero correlate al mistero dell'Annunciazione, in una sorta di gioco in cui due profeti ed una sibilla si alternano per svelare la nascita di Cristo. Magnifico documento di uno dei piu' famosi ed importanti gruppo di primitive incisioni. Bibliografia: Hind 1, p. 177; Bartsch 9; TIB 060 III/III; ; Early Italian Engraving from the National Gallery of Art pp. 13/25. Dimensioni 103x141." Engraving, 1470 circa. From the series Prophets and Sibyls. Example in the third state of three, with a reduced plate and number 9 on lower right. Magnificent work, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed inside the platemark line, lacking approximately 3 mm on each side, otherwise in excellent condition. Like many works of the XV century, example trimmed to platemark are unobtainable. All the news we have about Baccio Baldini derive from Vasari's Vite; scholar to Maso Finiguerra, he worked as goldsmith, specialized in niello-works, engraver and drawer. He worked in Florence until his death, during the fire of 1487. He production derives almost entirely from the drawings of Sandro Botticelli. The series Prophets and Sibyls is made of 36 plates: 12 depict the Sibyls and the others are about the Prophets. The work is inspired to the book of Dall'Annunciazione di Nostra Donna, 1471, of Feo Belcari, performed on stage during the visit of Galeazzo Sforza in Florence. The lines of the first edition are apparently related to the Annunciation, a sort of game in which two prophets and a sibyl take turns to reveal the birth of Christ. Magnificent example of one of the most primitive engravings. Bibliografia: Hind 1, p. 177; Bartsch 9; TIB 060 III/III; ; Early Italian Engraving from the National Gallery of Art pp. 13/25. Dimensioni 103x141. 103 141

Well, this is really nice, the engraver of this picture might have done even the e-series, I would assume, and that in ca. 1470.



Some others ... http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys ... 00014.html

But this are the Sybils, and these are given to 1487. In comparison these are ugly. Same artist, and it's said, that it is the same series. Do you understand this? The Baldini prints, which appear in the Laurentii books and so have a real date, aren't very well either ... well, perhaps they are not from Baldini.

For the geographical prints it might have been technical difficult to make such large engravings.


************

btw. that's Groenland upper left in the upper corner
Card VIIv in the Donnus
http://193.59.172.16/szzz/ShowSkan.do?i ... 22&wyglad=

http://www.raremaps.com/gallery/enlarge/23120

One of the maps of the Berlinghieri atlas

Berlinghieri, Francesco. Geographia (Italian; with additions by Marsiglio Ficino). Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus, [before September 1482]. Fo.
The third printed atlas and the first in a vernacular language, Berlinhieri's verse adaptation of Ptolemy's Cosmographia is the most notable for its inclusion of four contemporary maps: Spain, France, Italy, and Palestine, which just preceded the woodcut maps of the Ulm edition of the same year

http://dkarpeles.com/maps-and-atlases/1 ... linghieri/

The fact, that the Berlinghieri atlas included additional maps, which then also appeared in the Ulm edition (I don't know for sure, if this were the same maps) and as it is assumed, that the Ulm editions were made under the influence of Germanus, this might be a further evidence, that Nicolaus Germanus was identical to Nicolaus Laurentii alemanus.

I wrote ' And yes, 1462 is probably the date of the Germanus." Huck replied,

? How do you assume this ?

I assumed it from not reading Skelton closely enough. In Skelton's bibliographic note to the facsimile edition of the 1482 Ulm Ptolemy, he said of the Cosmographia dedicated to Borso in 1466,

This is one of five extant manuscripts in which, between about 1460 and 1466, Nicolaus reproduced his first recension of Ptolemy's work between about 1460 and 1466.

Of course that means only that he was working on it during that time, not that he produced manuscripts at regular intervals during that time. In his bibliographic note to the 1477 Bologna Ptolemy, Skelton offers an explanation for the "1462" that I missed:

In the colophon of this edition de' Lapi states that printing was completed 'ANNO M.CCCC.LXII. MENSE IUNEII.XXIII", i.e. on 23 June 1462. So early a date is inadmissible, if only because the reviser of the text, Filippo Beroaldo, who was then under two years old and because no printing by de' Lapi (a miniaturist turned printer) before 1474 is known. It is clear that the year-date contains a printer's error, in the omission of one or more digits form the Roman numerals; and earlier bibliographers proposed to insert X, giving 1472 (Nordenskiuld 1889), or XX, giving 1482 (Gamba 1796). The discovery of the documents of 1474 and 1477 mentioned above showed that the missing digits must be XV and the correct publication date M.CCCC.LX[XV]II, i.e. 1477 (Signhinolfi 1908).

Huck wrote,

Baccio Baldini...
....
Well, this is really nice, the engraver of this picture might have done even the e-series, I would assume, and that in ca. 1470.
....
Some others ... http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys ... 00014.html
But this are the Sybils, and these are given to 1487. In comparison these are ugly. Same artist, and it's said, that it is the same series. Do you understand this? The Baldini prints, which appear in the Laurentii books and so have a real date, aren't very well either ... well, perhaps they are not from Baldini.

I suspect that the quote you posted in Italian and English, which I didn't repeat (your source?), makes some errors. Lambert says that the Prophets are from 1470-1475 according to Hind, Levenson, and Oberhuber; and from 1475-1480 according to Zucker. That does not contradict your source, which says c. 1470, but simply allows that they are more likely later than 1470, rather than earlier. Even better for your e-series theory! They are 180 x 107, It is perhaps of interest that the "Mantegna" are 180x100. Lambert says nothing about Botticelli. According to her the Prophets were inspired artistically and technically by the series of Apostles and the Four Evangelists of Master E.S, and also by Schongauer and Burgundian art. Also they are by no means among the most primitive,( i.e. earliest?) Italian engravings. I will get you some interesting examples the next time I look at Hind 1438, probably on Tuesday. The earliest example that Lambert reproduces, a niello, is from c.1452, and she gives definite written documentation of niello from that time, which I quoted earlier. Copper engravings start in Florence c. 1460 per Hind and Lambert.

As far as the Sybils, Lambert says they are, too, were inspired by the performance done for Galeazzo in 1471. The figures there are known to us by a work of Filippo Barbieri published in 1481, the Disordantiae nonnullae, a manuscript of which comes close to describing the engraved figures. Another source is a fresco series done for Cardinal Orsini's palace in 1438, now lost. She does not give a date for Baldini's Sybils that I can find. Perhaps she means for them to be close in time to the Prophets. In the book, the Sybils follow immediately after the Prophets and are five pages (with many pictures) before the Monte Sancto. She does distinguish the Sybils from a later series attributed to Francesco Rosselli, c. 1485-1490, which are based on Baldini but with many variations (the dress, the words, the face, etc.).The Cumean Sybil you posted would appear to be a not very good copy of the Baldini, done backwards, like the S-Series "Mantegna," except for the words. Good eye there, Huck.



The drapery style of these Prophets and Sybils reminds me of the Queen that you posted from 1445 Germany rather than that of the "Mantegna" Muses. I have been looking at their lettering, to see if I detect any similarity to any of the Ptolemies or "Mantegna"'s. So far I can't say one way or the other.

On the Monte Sancro, Lambert's information is the same as yours. Here are the other two engravings from that book, first, "Christ in Glory." The "Inferno," she says, is inspired by a 14th century fresco in the Campo Santo of Pisa,





The engravings for the Divine Comedy have a Botticellian character, she says, and perhaps they follow designs by Botticlli, since he was in Rome at that time. They are either by Baldini or members of his atelier, she says.

I will compare the maps in the 1482 Florence and 1482 Rome, now that I know what I am looking for. The only thing is, the Florence maps might be based on Germanus's second rescension (finished by 1468 and with dedications to Borso and Paul II, per Skelton). The Ulm is based on the third rescension, and the Rome and Bologna on the first rescension, per Skelton.

http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Niklas_von_Wyle

Nicolaus Laurentii printed in Florence 1476/1477 a work of Pius II.: "De duobus amantibus Euryalo et Lucretia", based on an Italian translation by ...
http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke ... M33569.htm
... Alessandro Braccio, a Florentine secretary.
The dating is "not sure". Another suggestion is 1486, based on type analysis.

This activity was "responded" in Germany by a Niklas von Wyle in 1478, who translated the same text in 1478 to German language. I felt interested and checked the biography (see above).

"Mit der späteren Schwiegermutter des genannten Grafen Eberhard, der Markgräfin Barbara Gonzaga von Mantua, Tochter des Johannes Alchymista von [142] Brandenburg, trat v. W. zwei Mal als Botschafter – wohl 1459 am Concil zu Mantua und 1474 bei den Vorverhandlungen betreffend die Heirath ihrer Tochter Barbara – in persönlichen Verkehr."
According this Niklas von Wyle had been twice in Italy in the function as a diplomat, once in 1459 (congress of Mantova) and a second time 1474 for trading a marriage between count "Eberhard im Bart" and a Gonzaga-daughter "Barbara Gonzaga".

Barbara, *Mantova 11.12.1455, +Böblingen 31.5.1503; m.Urach 12.4.1474 Eberhard I von Württemberg (*11.12.1445 +24.2.1496)

http://genealogy.euweb.cz/gonzaga/gonzaga2.html

Eberhard had been a son of a sister-in-law of the current emperor Fredrick III., in other words an "emperor nephew by marriage" of the emperor brother Albrecht with a widow, who already had the son Eberhard. The emperor brother was very troublesome man and he died 1463, possibly even poisoned by the emperor, his late wife Mechthild (Eberhard's mother) in contrast was rather accepted and did a lot for the arts.

"Von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit aber gestalteten sich die Beziehungen v. Wyle’s zum kaiserlichen Hofe, den er nachweisbar mindestens drei Mal 1451 (1454?), 1456, 1463 (1465?) mit verschiedensten Aufträgen besucht hat. Vom Kaiser Friedrich III. wurde v. W. in Anerkennung seiner Dienste wahrscheinlich im Sommer 1463 mit der Würde eines Hofpfalzgrafen („sacri Lateranensis palacii auleque imperialis consistorii comes“) bekleidet."

From this it seems evident, that von Wyle had been on the side of the emperor in the conflict of the brothers - he got a title in 1463, the year, when the emperor brother died.

From Nicolaus Germanus we know, that he had been 1456 in the "astronomical cloister" of Reichenbach ...
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Re ... h_am_Regen
(not too far from the exiting city Nurremberg)
... and that was given then for some time to the Benedictine abbey Tegernsee (south of Munich) ...
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Tegernsee
... from which he probably not reappeared. From this abbey it's said, that it had a close connection to Cusanus, it's said, that Cusanus, after he had been there for 3 days around 1452, that he even wished to have there a place for his own age. Later intensive communications between Cusanus and the abbey prove, that there had been a closer connection. So a talented monk with some abilities had chances to meet the eye of the cardinal, who always had some sense for things, which might be interesting in Italy. Cusanus went to the council of Mantova, though he arrived late, after the "intensive month" September
Fact is, that 1460-1461 the Bessarion interaction takes place, by which first the Vienna astronom Peurbach and then Regiomontanus were engaged to translate the Almagest of Ptolemy, and that Regiomontanus then went to Italy, living in the house of Bessarion.
Other facts relate to the map of Cusanus, which later became part of the map collection, other again to the life-long-friendship Toscanelli-Cusanus ... just in the years 1456-57 Toscanelli had revived his astronomical interests by comet observings (Halley'sche comet in summer 1456), a comet, who caused public religious excitement during the mid of the year, especially as the battle against the Osmans accompanied the event.

On 5 May 1460 Bessarion arrived in Vienna, with his brother Sigismund, on a diplomatic visit to drum up support against the Turks. Bessarion encouraged Peurbach to produce an abridgment of Ptolemy's Almagest. He had two motives, one being a desire to have a more easily understandable version of Ptolemy's work available; the second being to give support to Theon of Alexandria against the attack from George of Trebizond. When Peurbach was on his deathbed in 1461, he begged Regiomontanus to complete the Epitome of the Almagest and Regiomontanus enthusiastically carried on the work. The Defence of Theon against George of Trebizond was another work which Regiomontanus probably began think about around this time.

Cardinal Bessarion now became Regiomontanus's patron and he travelled to Italy with his patron arriving in Rome on 20 November 1461.

I really don't know, who this brother "Sigismund" of Bessarion shall have been. Sigismund is the ... ????

Nicolaus Germanus appears first to Italian documents in 1464 ... Cusanus had become prisoner for some time ...

**************

Coming so far, I interrupted, there are these genius moments you know ...

Johannes, Herzog von Bayern: Der Gesprächspartner von Nikolaus von Kues im ersten Buch ist der Sohn des Pfalzgrafen Otto von Mosbach, wie Erich Meuthen in seiner Untersuchung Nikolaus von Kues und die Wittelsbacher nachgewiesen hat. (vgl. G.von Bredow, Dialogus de ludo globi, S. 145.)

De Ludo Globi

http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/20.jpg
20 - Apollo has the globe, after all the muses have it (äh ... one exception, 16 "Thalia = fun" makes jokes and sits on sits on it)
the follow the 7 artes liberalis
the last is ...
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/27.jpg
... poetry: the globe appears at the bottom and it is parted in star half = heaven and an earth-half , well, the poet discovers the muses and plays with them
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/28.jpg
Philosophia - no globe ...
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/29.jpg
... but Astrology has it (filled with stars)
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/30.jpg
Theology ... the globe becomes very big, still filled with stars
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/31.jpg
Iliaco - the globe has turned to sun and moon
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/32.jpg
Chronico (time) - the globe is a dragon
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/33.jpg
Cosmico - the globe is a mix of heaven + earth, heaven above, earth below ... as it already had been at 27 poetry, but now the globe is the focused object
... then come the 7 virtues
... then come the 7 planets
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/47.jpg
last planet Saturno, a circled dragon again, reflecting 32 Chronico before
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/48.jpg
Octava Sp(h)era ... an angel, as in astrology, the ball is filled with stars
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/49.jpg
Prima Causa, the angel gets dynamic, as if throwing the ball in a "LUDO GLOBI" ... the ball is without content, as in the Muses show
http://trionfi.com/mantegna/e/e-mantegn ... chi/50.jpg
.... well, the ball, the spheric show of the universe

De Ludo Globi, from which the first part is written 1462 and it is this year number, which astonishingly appears in the Ptolemy edition of 1477 and confuses.
In this same year 1477 Nicolaus Germanus sold two Globi to the pope and got 200 ducats. And the question is, what made Germanus 1462.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_I._%2 ... Mosbach%29

Johannes, Herzog von Bayern: Der Gesprächspartner von Nikolaus von Kues im ersten Buch ist der Sohn des Pfalzgrafen Otto von Mosbach, wie Erich Meuthen in seiner Untersuchung Nikolaus von Kues und die Wittelsbacher nachgewiesen hat. (vgl. G.von Bredow, Dialogus de ludo globi, S. 145.)

"Johann, duke of Bavaria: The talking partner of Nikolaus of Kues in his first book" (there are two parts, the second written probably 1463) "is the son of the Pfalzgraf Otto von Mosbach, as Erich Meuthen has proven in his research "Nikolaus von Kues und die Wittelsbacher"".

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_I._%2 ... Mosbach%29

Well, I'm confused. Erich Meuthen had mad a lot of studies about Cusanus, why should he write nonsense.

A Johann was duke of Bavaria (Bayern-München, as Bavaria was parted) from 1460-63 and then he died. A brother from him, Albrecht, studied in Pavia, came back from Italy and opposed another brother, who retired then, Sigmund. This Johann was not the son of Otto von Mosbach, but of Albrecht dem Frommen, who died 1460.
Another Johann was the son of Otto von Mosbach ... this didn't become duke of Bavaria, but Dompropst zu Mainz, Speyer und Augsburg. He lived till 1486.
Otto von Mosbach himself died 1461 and was buried in the Benedictine abbey Reichenbach ... the place, where Nicolaus Germanus came from. His heir Otto became reknown for his mathematical and astronomical studies, he even got the second name "Mathematicus".

Somehow obvious, that a son of "Otto von Mosbach" fits better in the Cusanus story, but ...
"Ioannes dux Baioatiae" .
In the second book of Cusanus a younger brother of this Ioannes appears and his name is Albert ... "Albrecht IV. der Weise", who studied in Pavia and returned, if one follows the common information about Bavaria-München.
The Mosbach-Johann had also a brother Albrecht, but this was 3 years older (according Wikipedia) than himself and became bishop of Strassburg.

This is complicated, but other internet researches strengthen the interpretation, that the Mosbach boys were meant in Cusanus' text. And these researches look more serious than the Wikipedia data.

There's a lot of trouble in Germany around this time and this makes it difficult to get an overview.

The first printed Cusanus edition is from1488, perhaps somebody found it interesting to honor the Bavarian-München boys (Bavaria-München became strong during the century, the Mosbach fraction died out). I just don't get, what the researcher Erich Meuthen found out.

In 1460 Otto I, the father, made a journey to Jerusalem, he died in 1461 in Reichenbach. Journey to Jerusalem should mean, that he went through Italy (Venice), and it possibly means, that he visited the Congress of Mantova in 1459. His sons might have accompanied the tross and so we have a possible scenario for the text of Cusanus, de ludo globi.
And we've a possible scenario, how Nicolaus Germanus might have found his way to Italy. His oldest son, Otto Ii, became the "Mathematikos", the other both talked with Cusanus and had other humanistic interests.

The father of Otto I was Ruprecht, German king 1400-1410, and he also had been to Italy. Ruprecht had 4 sons and he wished to distribute his possessions between his sons. Otto was the youngest, and he kept himself to the oldest, Ludwig, who had Heidelberg as his center. Ludwig made in 1426 also a journey to Jerusalem, and when returned, he was sick and gave the command to his younger brother Otto. So actually Otto had been rather influential.

Other Germans should have also visited Mantova and the congress. So actually there are many chances, how the researched double person Germanus-Laurentii found his way. But in 1471 he was in Mantova, as scribe and typesetter. Mantova had a half-German court, so not a bad place for a German monk.

1464 he is in Florence, but 1464 is also year in which Cusanus died (August 11) and 3 days later Pius II died. Bessarion had invited Regiomontanus, so it was wished, that Rome should become a center for astronomical study ... Pius II had worked as secretary for emperor Fredrick and he had seen, that Vienna had been an astronomical center and so he wished it to have in Italy, too. And as he had seen also the early results of a printing press, he also wished that. So Regiomontanus was fetched and Regiomontanus needed helpers and so Germanus should have been in Rome - till 1464. Then Pius died and the new pope had other interests. And Germanus went to Florence. Then to Ferrara. Then to Mantova. And then to Florence - or perhaps also a little bit to Rome. Perhaps he was involved in Sweynheim's project - Regiomontanus was called to Rome. It seems, that Sixtus had revived the project, that earlier was in the mind of Bessarion-Pius-Cusanus.

Around Bessarion builded the his academy, but a second Roman focus was the Accademia Romana and the particiating persons took the habit to take nick names, mostly Roman names. Two of the members took names, which also appear in the Mantegna Tarocchi ... Cosmico and Chronico, originally appearing in an astronomical work of Sacrabosco.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_de_Sacrobosco

Niccolò Lelio Della Comare ca. 1420-1500 = Cosmico
http://www.giovannidallorto.com/biograf ... smico.html

Summarizing ... the vision of the earth-globe might have inspired Cusanus for his de ludo globi, not that this was unknown before, but it was visualized with the map form of Nicolaus Germanus and became a little bit more concrete.

Well, I need a pause.