SCHOENER, Johann (1477-1547). Luculentissima quaeda[m] terrae totius descriptio: cu[m] multis utilissimis Cosmographiae iniciis. [A very clear description of the whole earth, with many useful cosmographic elements]. Nuremberg: Johann Stuchs, 1515. Small 4to (205 x 150 mm). 86 ff., [15], 65 ff. Full-page woodcut coat of arms of the Bishop of Bamberg on title verso, near-full-page text woodcuts of Schoener's famous globe of 1515 (f.A1r), of the armillary sphere (fol.19v), and of a circular world map (fol.31r); numerous large woodcut initials, some with historiation. Modern vellum. Condition: new flyleaves and endpapers, some leaves washed, last leaf repaired; vellum lightly soiled. Provenance: faded annotations on vellum parchment affixed to lower title in contemporary hand. THE EARLIEST MAJOR TREATISE ON THE GLOBE AND ITS MANUFACTURE, by the pioneer of globe-making in Europe; taking forward Waldseemullers concepts in 1507 of the world in spherical (globe) form. An essential source book for the early production of globes, the work was issued to publicize and create interest in Schoener's first globe of 1515, the title of the globe being identical to this work. Schoener's first woodcut globe was printed in 1515, and is illustrated on A1r and f.16r in this present copy. It is of primary importance to the text. The supplemental treatise is divided into two parts: the first, in twelve chapters, on the theory and geometry of globes, and the second, in eleven chapters, giving a new and illuminating geographical description of the world. Schoener refers to the continent of America by its newly instituted name, thus drawing reference from the Waldseemüller's map of 1507; Schoener based in Bamberg, was a close follower of Waldessmuller and may have studied with him at St Die. A poem by Johannes Stabius is printed on leaf aiii, a notable mathematician and astronomer. He authored, along with Conrad Heinfogel, the star charts issued by Dürer in this same year of 1515. Another poem by Joannes Hiltner on the last leaf gives a description of a Schoener celestial globe. It's association with this volume and of the date 1515 make it feasible that the 1517 celestial globe of Schoener was a spherical rendering of the aforementioned star charts. During this period Schoener was experimenting with his manufacture of globes. In 1515 he made a woodcut terrestrial globe, diameter 28cm (one example, heavily painted, survives), a celestial (now lost), followed in 1517, a manuscript globe (diameter 87cm) was made in 1520, followed by an woodcut terrestrial globe in 1523 (with Magellans new discoveries) and a pair of globes, celestial and terrestrial, in 1534/35. Apart from Behaim's manuscript globe of 1492 and the 4 surviving copies of the woodcut gore sheets of Waldseemuller's pocket globe, 1507, the 4 Schoener woodcut globes that survive are the oldest 'manufactured' western globes. Schoener owned the the only surviving examples of the 1507 Waldseemuller wallmap and the Carta Marina of 1516, both now in the Library of Congress. Originally these two maps and sample sheets of his globe gores were bound in a codex found in the library of Castle Wolfegg in Wurttemberg, Germany. Waldseemuller's geography was the source for Schoener's terrestrial globes. The importance of this work by its dissemination of geographical information through the concept of the spherical world, in the Renaissance period, cannot be underestimated; this manual is one of the primary sources of the development of that knowledge. An absolute rarity, only two copies have appeared at auction in the last 30 years. Stevens-Coote, Schoener, no. 1; Alden & Landis 515/16; Sabin 77804; Harrisse 80; JCB I, 63; Church 37; Borba de Moraes II, 781; Adams S-682; Nordenskiöld, Facsimile Atlas, p. 77; Stevenson I, 82--88; World Encompassed 73; Van der Krogt Globi Neerlandici, pp30-33. (1)