Printing the Waldseemüller 1507 and 1516 World Maps

The 1507 globe gores and especially the twelve-sheet world map Universalis cosmographia by Martin Waldseemüller have attracted a great deal of scholarly and public attention. There is still uncertainty, however, as to where and by whom they were printed. This essay addresses these questions by combining sources from the history of printing and of cartography. I argue that there were two states of Universalis cosmographia, the first produced in the Saint-Dié printshop in 1507, the second printed in Strasbourg by Johann Grüninger ca. 1515. I argue that the other large twelve-sheet world map by Waldseemüller, the 1516 Carta marina navigatoria, was also printed in Strasbourg by Johann Grüninger. This work relies on and enriches our understanding of early Renaissance cartography and printing, highlighting the key role of printers alongside cartographers and humanists.