First complete edition in Italian, first octavo edition .

The 1548 edition of Ptolemy (colophon dated October 1547) stands out from its predecessors in several respects. It is the first pocket-sized edition of the work, making it at least plausible that it accompanied an explorer. Sebastian Münster's commentary—a truly pan-European humanistic effort—and Ptolemy's text were both translated by Pietro Andrea Mattioli (Matthioli), best known as a botanist and translator of Dioscorides. Gastaldi's maps—who was also responsible for updating and adding modern place names, a monumental task reflected in the 127-page index—are unusually decorative and up-to-date, especially considering their small size. A substantial group of non-European maps is included, with a focus on the Silk Road and India (maps 46–53) and five maps of the Americas, including the first regional maps of North America. (The two world maps (one of which is a nautical chart) demonstrate the modern turn in world representation. Both continue to conceptualize America as connected to Asia, even as the globe itself begins to conceive of a caesura between northwest America and northeast Asia.