07 – Germany: Teutschland, mit seinem gantzen Begriff undeyngeschloßnen Landtschafften

06 – France: Das Gantz Franckreich/ so Vorzeiten Narbonensis, Lugdunensis, Belgica und Celtica ist Genennt Worden

05 – Spain: Hispanien nach Aller Seiner Gelegenheit/ in Bergen/ Stetten/ Voelckern/ Koenigreichen/ Waessern und Inseln

04 – England: Engellandt mit dem Anstossenden Reich Schottlandt so vor Zeiten Albion und Britannia haben Geheissen

03 – Europe: Europa / das ein Drittheil der Erden / nach Gelegenheit unserer zeit beschrieben

02 – World: Ptolemeisch General Tafel die Halbe Kugel der Welt Begreiffende

Map 01 - Globe: Die erst General Tafel / die Beschreibung und dun Circkel des Gantzen Erdtrichs und Meers Innhaltende

I am currently restoring a 1614 Cosmographia. This topic records the progress of me restoring the preface cross-page maps. For the background story of this restoration project, please refer to this topic: [1614 COSMOGRAPHIA] RESTORATION PROJECT

At the beginning of the 1614 edition Cosmographia, there are total of 26 cross-page maps included.

• 01 - Globe: Die erst General Tafel / die Beschreibung und dun Circkel des Gantzen Erdtrichs und Meers Innhaltende


• 02 - World: Ptolemeisch General Tafel die Halbe Kugel der Welt Begreiffende


• 03 - Europe: Europa / das ein Drittheil der Erden / nach Gelegenheit unserer zeit beschrieben


• 04 - England: Engellandt mit dem Anstossenden Reich Schottlandt so vor Zeiten Albion und Britannia haben Geheissen


• 05 - Spain: Hispanien nach Aller Seiner Gelegenheit/ in Bergen/ Stetten/ Voelckern/ Koenigreichen/ Waessern und Inseln


• 06 - France: Das Gantz Franckreich/ so Vorzeiten Narbonensis, Lugdunensis, Belgica und Celtica ist Genennt Worden


• 07 - Germany: Teutschland, mit seinem gantzen Begriff und eyngeschloßnen Landtschafften


• 08 - Switzerland: Die erst Tafel innhaltend das Schweytzerlandt mit den anstossenden Ländern


• 09 - Rhine River: Die ander Tafel des Rheinstroms, begreiffend die Pfaltz, Westereich, Eyfel


• 10 - Rhine River & Southern Germany: Die dritte Tafel des Rheinstroms, innhaltend das Nider Teutschlandt


• 11 - Southern Germany: Schwaben und Baeyerlandt, darbey auch begriffen der Otenwald, Nortgoew


• 12 - Germany (Franconia): Franckenlandt am Mayn beschriben nach aller gelegenheit in Stetten Bergen Wassern Waelden und anstossenden Laendern


• 13 - Poland (Silesia): Schlesia Nach Aller Gelegenheit / In Stetten / Wassern Und Bergen


• 14 - Czech (Bohemia): Boehemer Koenigreich mit Bergen und Waelden Gerings umb Beschlossen


• 15 - Eastern Europe (Sarmatia Evropaea): Landtafel des Ungerlands / Polands / Preussen / Littaw / Walachey und Bulgarey


• 16 - Romania (Transsylvania): Die Siebenburg so man sunst auch Transsylvaniam nennt


• 17 - Croatia (Sclavonia): Sclauonia Oder Windisch Parck / Bossen / Crabaten


• 18 - Italy (Italia): Italia mit Dreyen Furnemesten Inseln Corsica Sardinia und Sicilia


• 19 - Northern Europe & Scandinavia (Regiones Septentronales): Gemeine Beschreibung Aller Mittnaechtigen Laender, altz Schweden, Gothen, Norwegien, Denmarck


• 20 - Greece  (Graecia): New Griechenlandt mit andern anstoffenden Landern wie es zu unsern zeiten beschriben ist


• 21 - Asia: Asia wie es Jetziger Zeit nach den Furnemesten Herzschafften Abgetheilet und Beschriben ist


• 22 - Middle East (Altatischeta): Syria / Cypern / Palestina / Mesopotamia / Babylonia / zwey Arabia / mit Bergen / Waesseren und Stetten


• 23 - Palestine (Palestina): Das Heilig Landt mit Ausztheilung der Zwolff Geschlechter


• 24 - Sumatra & Malaysia (Taprobana): Sumatra ein Grosse Insel / so von den alten Geographen Taprobana genennet worden


• 25 - Africa: Affricae Tabula Nova


• 26 - America: Americae sive Novi Orbis, Nova Descriptio

1614 Cosmographia Restoration Project

Here, I will be using this platform to record my restoration progress of a 1614 Edition Cosmographia .




I have been collecting Formosa related antique maps for quite a while. Since a lot of individual maps were actually pages severed from books, I was introduced to many old titles as well. Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster (1488- 1552) was one of them. I did not pay much attention to the book at first simply because of the price tag. A complete Cosmographia can easily fetch more than USD 20K at auctions. Plus I do not understand German at all, so I never thought I would actually buy a book that expensive.



One day, I was looking for a nice background for my pocket watch photo shoot. I thought maybe pages from an antique book would be a good idea. I started looking for pages from Cosmographia, because it is widely available and reasonably priced. I bought a couple pages at around USD 5 dollars each, and then I stumbled on an incomplete 1614 Cosmographia for sell for about USD 1K. As the seller stated, most of the illustrations are gone, so only about 1100 out of the 1576 pages remain. On average, that is about a dollar for a 400 year old page, which is not bad of a deal at all. I thought I can just buy the book and cut the pages to sell them individually.



After I received the book, I found the book was very carefully restored at some point, and then brutally butchered for the images. I can almost hear this book crying for help. That was when I decided that maybe I can try to restore this book.





I had restored missing pages of antique books before, but only a few pages at a time. It involved finding a piece of acid-free handmade paper of similar texture, printing the missing content onto the paper, and inserting the page into the book. However, for this book, the workload would be huge because of the volume and the size. 500 pieces of A3 sized handmade paper is a challenge already. The paper itself would cost a fortune, and I will have to cut them to standard A3 size before I can feed them to printers. I will, again, have to cut them to the correct page size before I can insert them into the book. Also, handmade paper is very soft that it will jam the printer very often. As I did not want any watermark on the paper, I decided to use a batch of specially ordered Conqueror paper. Although the page seems to be a little bit too thick, but 80P is the thinnest I can order. The content will be laser printed, because I think it is way safer than inkjets.

The book will eventually need a rebinding, but that is way out of my league. I will focus on reproducing all the missing pages. Once all the pages are present, then I can consider how to rebind the book or leave it as is (at least, it will be a complete readable book).

The biggest challenge is the content itself. Lucky, there is an online copy of 1614 Cosmographia on Google ( https://books.google.com/books?id=e1BhAAAAcAAJ ). I can do screen captures, concatenate them into a page, and process the image to make it printer ready. All 440 pages mean almost 900 images to process. Not to mention that I have to hand stitch all those cross-page maps by fixing distorted/fragmented images from the internet. It is indeed a crazy ambitious project for one single person.









To simplify, the process involves:

• Identify the missing page


• Find the missing content on the internet


• Process the image to make it printer ready


• Laser print the image onto an A3 80P cream-colored Conqueror paper


• Cut the paper to the right size


• Glue (archival grade) the pages together for cross-page images


• Put the page into correct position (for now).

The 1614 German edit has the following pages mislabeled:

• Page 629 mislabeled as 639


• Page 630 mislabeled as 640


• Page 631 mislabeled as 641


• Page 632 mislabeled as 642


• Page 1506 mislabeled as 1560

由於親戚的關係，筆者在幼年的時候曾經跟翰墨軒（香港一間知名畫廊）有過接觸，當然筆者沒有能力購買任何翰墨軒經手的畫作，不過筆者一直對於那些所謂有錢人購買動輒上億的繪畫不是很能理解。尤其筆者後來有機會接觸一些有錢的收藏家（古董而非畫作），竟發現他們對於自己收藏領域的知識少得可憐，更是覺得他們跟買名車或是名錶的人一樣：只管買卻不願意去認識自己所購買的東西。當筆者在書店看到許宗煒所著的「我的收藏藝術」，其實第一時間並未拿起來翻翻，因為筆者以為這大概跟商業週刊一樣，又是一堆成王敗寇的馬後砲文章。

後來筆者在書店看書的時候，就順便將這本書拿了，想說在書店翻翻就算了。沒想到稍微翻閱了一下，筆者就決定在書店坐下將這本書看完。甚至回家之後還不斷地回想閱讀到的內容。幾天之後乾脆專程去書店將該書買回家，重頭到尾又重新細讀一遍。筆者很少會在書店看完一本書之後又回頭將該書買下，可是這本書真的是句句璣珠，閱讀完之後令人意猶未盡。

「我的收藏藝術」這本書分為四個部分，第一部份算是作者許宗煒對於有涉獵的畫家作一些簡介。所謂的簡介並非單純的生平介紹，還有以收藏家的角度去鑑賞該藝術家的風格、筆觸等細節。作者言之有物而且用詞平實切重要害，並不像一般坊間的藝術雜誌用一堆華麗的詞彙來灑狗血，文中很多甚至是作者獨家的個人經驗，非常可貴。雖然筆者對藝術品是個大外行，看完之後卻完全能融入作者的觀點來看待並理解作者欣賞或是收藏該畫作背後的心態為何。第二部分則是談到了作者面對整個藝術收藏市場的心態及經驗，這也是筆者認為這是本書最珍貴的地方。因為這些鑑賞的心態跟角度，完全可以套用到其他收藏領域。這也證明了成功的收藏家無論收藏的是什麼，其成功的心法都不會相差太遠。

第三部分則是近年來拍賣會相關的實務經驗談。由於中國近年來經濟崛起之後又趨緩，幾乎跟中國有關的收藏品都經歷了大起大落的過程，這也再次證明許先生對於畫作拍賣的經驗跟理解（尤其中國市場）幾乎可以完全套用到其他收藏領域上。至少那些心得跟筆者所接觸到的拍賣公司員工私下透露的牢騷幾乎如出一轍。第四部分比較簡短，就算是筆者的人生雜談，從臺灣政府的政策、居家裝潢到送拍心得，作者都表達出自己身為資深收藏家的經驗跟觀點。

這本書的精彩真的令筆者拍案叫絕，不過打再多字都比不上這本書的內容，還不如直接買回家看。對於中國近代畫作有興趣的朋友，這本書簡直是聖經。對於古董、藝術品或是任何收藏有興趣的朋友，這本書的心得也是完全可以借鏡的。這本書很多經驗幾乎是只有與資深收藏家深交之後，才有可能在與其酒後聊天時，對方隨口吐露一二的心得。沒想到許宗煒先生居然如此大方地將他寶貴的經驗這樣分享出來。這本書定價430元，但是其中的經驗如果用對地方，絕對可以為你省下430萬。