LAURENBERG, JOHANNES.

Græcia antiqua. Edidit Samuel Pufendorf.

      - Amsterdam, Apud Joannem Janssonium. 1660. Oblong-4to. Contemporary full calf, spine with traces of wear. (8), 62, (2) pp. With 31 fullpage engraved maps and 7 textual engravings. Title-page neatly restored and first 4 pages with repairs in lower right corner not affecting text. With the bookplate of H. Coyet-Torup in Sweden. Rare and charming atlas of Ancient Greece with maps by Lauremberg, edited by Pufendorf. Most expositions of Pufendorf overlook the fact that the famous Heidelberg-professor not only worked within the fields of law and history of law, but that he was also very much engaged in philology and classics. In fact, Pufendorf taught classes and gave lectures on philology at in Heidelberg, and he also been involved in publications in this field, namely as the editor of works by Lauremberg and Meursius. As such, Pufendorf came to be connected to an important and long philosophical tradition at the Heidelberg University. The present charming and well executed atlas thus stands at the centre of this subject field of Pufendorf.Johannes Laurenberg (1590-1658) was a mathematician born in Rostock in Germany. He was a professor of poetry in Rostock and after that professor of mathematics in Sorø, Denmark, where he worked till he died. In 1631 the Danish King Christian IV commissioned Laurenberg to do the mapping of Denmark. For the next 16 years he worked on this project and corresponded with the king. The work was never finished, though, and in 1645 the king lost his patience and fired Laurenberg. In 1647 Janssonius published his Atlas Novus, which contained two maps from Denmark in high quality. It is most likely that Laurenberg drew these maps. See Bramsen, pp. 68-72. Shirley II, p. 1557.