John W. Hessler

This is a two-volume set examining (a.) the famous Martin Waldseemüller maps that first gave the name "America" to the New World, and (b.) other printed and manuscript materials that were bound together with the sole surviving copies of Waldseemüller's maps into a single volume once owned by the 16th-century mathematician, map-maker, and astrologer Johannes Schöner.

Volume 1 ("The Naming of America") focuses on Waldseemüller's 1507 world map and a set of his globe gores from the same time, reproducing all the plates of the map and comparing them with the textual descriptions in his introductory text on geography, the Cosmographiae Introductio. Helpfully, the last part of the volume includes a complete new translation of the latter text.

Volume 2 ("A Renaissance Globemaker's Toolbox") includes discussion and reproductions of images from Waldseemüller's 1516 world map, the terrestrial and celestial globe gore fragments by Schöner that were found in the binding of the volume when it was dismantled to make a reproduction of Waldseemüller's 1507 map, and a copy of the celestial map of the southern hemisphere by Johannes Stabius, Albrecht Dürer, and Conrad Heinfogel. Additional chapters offer some of the most detailed material available in English about Schöner's life and works, including short excerpts from his writings. (More detailed information about Schöner is available in German, most notably in the doctoral dissertation by Monika Maruska that is available online.)

The images in both volumes are very nicely displayed and make a great complement to anyone who is either planning or has recently made a trip to visit the display of the original Waldseemüller maps at the Library of Congress. The image sizes are not large enough for detailed study using these volumes alone, but the entire 1507 map has been marvelously digitized on the Library of Congress website. (As of this writing, the other materials from the volume seem to be only incompletely digitized, but I suspect that might change in the future.) The textual discussions are relatively concise and geared toward a general audience. Specialists may quibble over occasional bits, but overall the material will be helpful for anyone looking for historical context on these maps and the era in which they were created.… (mehr)

A good quality book, but not a fine or limited edition. It was published to accompany an exhibition in Washington featuring the manuscript at the Library of Congress.
It contains a brief introduction about Galileo, followed by a facsimile of the Astronomicus Nuncius (Starry Messenger) which is printed on modern matt finish paper and runs to about 60 pages. Then there is a translation, and then several rather dry academic papers about the minutae of the manuscipt from the nature of the telescope he used and the paper on which the manuscript was written, to the refutations made by contemporaries of Galileo's findings.
I would happily pay US$40 for such a book, but in Australia it cost me US$155 including postage, which I felt was very excessive.
I have purchased much better books for less.… (mehr)