Giovanni Botero - Mundus Imperiorum - 1598

(HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, ILLUSTRATED; FIRST EDITIONS; RARIORA) Giovanni BOTERO (1544 - 1617)
Mundus Imperiorum sive de Mundi Imperiis libri quatuor. Complectentes universale Theatrum, omnium Regnorum & magnorum Imperiorum totius universi, cum uniuscuiusque regni & Imperi Regali, censu aerarii & armorum potentia, Imperi magnitudine & Regiminis forma, Principatibus denique finitimis, cum populorum variorum diversis moribus, artibus, ingeniis, & militia studiisque, tam pacis quam belli tempore, & uniuscuiusque Imperi initio, incremento & conservationis modo. Opus novum, in rerum novarum cupidorum & magnarum studiosorum gratiam, a Guidone du Bruecqs, ex Ioannis Botteri Benesi Italicis relationibus Latine factum. Iucundum sane futurum lectu, & etiam utile, nonmodo Regibus & magnis Principibus, sed & Dynastis & viri heroibus & equitibus, militiae & rerum publicarum amantibus & studiosis. Coloniae Agrippinae, excudebat Bertramus Buchholtz, 1598.
§ 4to, [48], 126, [2], 127-147, [3] pp., 5 engraved folding geographical plates, 3 of which hors texte; sign. (highly erroneous for the unnumbered quires, for which an alternative sequence is offered): [a-c]4, [d]8, [e]4, A-T4 (leaves Q4 and T4 blank). Iconographical apparatus as follows: Typus Orbis Terrarum (leaves [a]3v-[a]4r), Turcici Imperii Descriptio (leaves [d]4v-[d]5r), Europa (hors texte, usually bound between leaves [e]4 and A1), Asia (hors texte, usually bound between leaves H4 and I1) and Africa (hors texte, usually bound between leaves Q4 and R1). Contemporary limp vellum binding with calligraphic title on spine.
First, utterly rare Latin edition of the epitome of the Relationi universali (Universal Accounts) by the priest and diplomat Giovanni Botero edited by Guy de Breucq (fl. 1579 - 1603), magistrate of Bruges. Based on the German and Latin editions of Botero’s work published in Cologne two years earlier by Lambert Andreae (d. 1597), this epitome is mainly known for its iconographical apparatus, which reproduces the maps attributed to one of the most famous members of the Cartographic School of Cologne, Jan Matal (1520 - 1597), originally published in the Lambert edition. Particularly accurate appears the terrestrial planisphere, usually missing, which consists of a corrected and updated version of the 1570 Planisphere by Abraham Ortelius (1527 - 1598).
The Relationi universali, generally considered the cornerstone of modern demographic studies, are a comprehensive repertoire of history, geography and ethnography, with systematic statistical accounts, including economic resources, military power, and political constitution of each and every country.
This epitomized edition knew wide success and dissemination, being reprinted first in 1603 (Ursellis, ex officina typographica Cornelii Sutorij; the same printer published a German translation of the text the previous year) then in 1620 under the title Politia regia (Marpurgi, typis Pauli Egenolphi). ONE OF THE 4 COMPLETE COPIES RECORDED, RETAINING THE WORLD MAP ( Typus orbis terrarum), ALWAYS LACKING
Ref. OCLC 457106516; GILHOFER & RANSCHBURG, The XVIth century (Catalogue 193, 1920), I, 1596.