ABSTRACT
The application of the printing process to the reproduction of maps enabled geographical information to be diffused not only more widely but also with great fidelity to the original. The first great advance in comparative cartography was the introduction of printing in the 15th century. The first printed atlas is the Bologna Ptolemy of 1477; both Dominico de' Lapi, who printed it, and Taddeo Crivelli, who probably prepared the maps, had previously practised as miniaturists. The engravers of the maps for the Rome edition had been trained by the German printer Conrad Sweynheym of Mainz, who with his partner Arnold Pannartz set up the first printing shop in Italy. To the engraved Ptolemaic atlases in fact many Italians and Germans must have owed their first sight of a geographical map of any kind. Besides the schematic world maps, some more significant woodcut maps appeared in printed books.
