Pomponio Mela - [Post Incunable] De Situ Orbis - 1519

Ancient Geography: The Orbis Terrarum that illustrated the world known to the Romans.
Numerous hand-painted initials in red and blue. This geographical compendium, printed in Florence in 1519 by the heirs of Filippo Giunta, presents ancient geography as one of the great intellectual tools with which the classical world thought, ordered, and mastered space. Not a simple description of places, but a rational construction of the orbis terrarum, the collection brings together cosmography, urban topography, imperial itineraries, and periegetic poetry, offering a coherent view of the known world according to Latin knowledge. From the extreme boundaries of the ecumene described by Pomponius Mela and Solinus, to the roads of the empire traced by the Itinerarium Antonini, up to the ideal map of Rome elaborated by Pietro Vettori, geography emerges as a foundational discipline of Roman civilization, instrument of government, memory, and identity. The Periegete’s poem of Dionysius, translated by Priscian, seals the universal character of this knowledge, capable of fusing science and poetic form. The editorial layout, inspired by the Aldine model, and the illustrious collecting provenance of the exemplar attest to Renaissance acclaim for an ancient geography perceived not as a residue of the past, but as a key to understanding the nascent modern world.
Market value
Copies of this Florentine collection, when offered on the antiquarian market, fetch a price range of €1,800 to €3,500, depending on completeness, binding, and the presence of ancient annotations. The copy in question, bound in parchment and with a learned provenance (Borgström), is a bibliographically attractive item for collectors of classical geography, ancient topography, and Renaissance typography.

Physical description and condition
Numerous hand-painted illuminated initials in red and blue. Full parchment stiff binding, gold title on the spine label, visible gilding. Nail-stub binding? visible. Woodblock printer's mark on the recto of the last leaf. Text in roman type in two columns, with titles in small capitals. Some ancient marginal annotations in brown ink. Light and uniform browning, wide and well-preserved margins. Genuine and solid copy, with traces of scholarly reading. Ancient books may have minor defects and imperfections due to age, not always noted in the description. Pages [1]–223, [1] white.

Full title and author
The Geography of the World. Caius Julius Solinus, Polyhistor. Antonius Augustus (attributed). Itinerarium provinciarum. Petrus Victor (Peter Vettori), De regionibus urbis Romae. Dionysius Periegetes, Poem on the Position of the World, with Priscian as interpreter.
Florentiae: heirs of Philippi Iuntae, 1519.
Pomponius Mela

Context and Significance
This collection offers a complete map of geographic and antiquarian knowledge of the Latin world, constructed as an authoritative corpus for scholars and readers of the early Renaissance. Pomponius Mela describes the orbis terrarum from a Roman perspective, offering a concise and influential cosmography. Solinus, following Pliny, fuses geography and ethnography, making the Polyhistor a central text in late antique education. The Itinerarium Antonini lists roads, distances, and places of the empire, probably compiled under Diocletian, and it was fundamental for reconstructing the administrative structure of Rome. The treatise De regionibus urbis Romae by Pietro Vettori, the fruit of Florentine erudition, projects the ancient topography of the imperial capital in a new philological-humanistic light. The Periegesis of Dionysius the Geographer, transformed into Latin by the grammarian Priscian, closes the volume by blending geography with poetic diction, marking a significant turning point in the scholastic transmission of ancient knowledge. The volume, with an editorial layout derived from the Aldine lesson, was probably conceived as a study and reference text, suitable for noble, university, and curial libraries.

Author Biography
Pomponius Mela (1st century CE) was the first Latin geographer to compose an organic treatise on the entire known world, modeled on the scheme of the three continents. Solinus (3rd century) was an encyclopedic compiler in the Plinian vein, famous for his Polyhistor. The Itinerarium Provincarum is a road-list from the imperial era, probably the product of an official imperial commission in the 3rd century. Pietro Vettori (1499–1585) was one of the greatest humanists and Florentine editors, professor of Greek and Latin, curator of Aristotelian texts and an innovative philologist. Dionysius Periegetes (2nd century CE) wrote in hendecasyllables a geography of the known world; Priscian (5th century CE), an African grammarian, translated it into Latin, making the text accessible in medieval and humanist school curricula.

Printing history and circulation
The collection revises the Aldine edition of 1518, edited by Francesco d’Asola, enriching it with marginalia and updated humanist interventions. Printed by Giunti in 1519 in Florence, at a moment when the family printing operation was expanding even beyond Venice, it represents one of the first examples of a multidisciplinary geographical book designed for scholars and Italian courts. The choice to fuse cosmography, itineraries, and poetry testifies to the aim of combining ancient science, administrative practice, and humanist literature in a single editorial object, anticipating the cartographic encyclopedism of the second half of the sixteenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Brunet IV, 801 – Graesse V, 401 – EDIT16 CNCE32224 – VD16 S 6971 – ISTC im00364000 – Clavuot, Cartography and Humanism, Torino 2005 – Dionisotti, Latin Humanism in Italy, Torino 1967 – Balsamo, Printing in Italy in the Sixteenth Century, Roma 2004 – Richardson, Manuscript and Print in the Renaissance, 1999.