Armillary Sphere

Acquired From: Leen Helmink

Colouring: Uncoloured

Condition: Very Good

Confirmed: 4/10/2024

Date Acquired: 12/1/2022

Description: In 1522, Johannes Grüninger, one of the most important publishers in Strasbourg, issued the third edition of Martin Waldseemüllers Geographia, edited by Lorenz Fries. The edition was a commercial success, leading to a fourth edition in 1525. For this revised issue, the text was updated by the Nuremberg humanist Willibald Pirckheimer, and the woodcut of the armillary sphere included in the volume was, according to art historian Johann David Passavant, designed by Albrecht Dürer. In contrast to the simpler 1522 sphere (View Record (#3)), Dürers version is more elaborate: it depicts a Ptolemaic sphere surrounded by seven concentric rings and twelve wind heads, each labelled with Greek and Roman names, representing classical directional winds. Two letters from Johannes Tscherte, court architect to Charles V, addressed to Pirckheimer, confirm Dürers authorship. In a letter dated 22 November 1525, Tscherte thanks Pirckheimer for the copy of the Geographia and attributes the armillary sphere to Dürer. In a follow-up letter dated 5 February 1526, he contrasts this design with another sphere in the book, noting that it was composed only of lines and letters. Dürers image, by contrast, was created not merely as a diagram but as a synthesis of art and scienceintended to illustrate the third projection of Ptolemaic cosmography with intellectual and aesthetic authority.

First published: Geographia, ed. Lorenz Fries, Strasbourg: Johannes Grüninger, 1525

Image Size (cm): 27×26

Mapmaker: Dürer, Albrecht (1471-1528)

Price: 1,200

Primary Category: Prints & Related Material

Purchase Reference: Ledger 2022. Email 13 Feb 2022

References: The letters are found in Johann Heumann von Teutschenbrunn, Documenta literaria varii argumenti in lucem prolata (Altdorf: Schupfel, 1758), 279285. nJohann David Passavant, Jean Duchesne, and Adam von Bartsch, Le Peintre-Graveur, vol. 3, 6 vols (Leipzig: Rudolph Weigel, 1864), 19091

Sheet size (cm): 38×26

Technique: Woodcut

This state: 1525

Website: Click here