Claudii Ptolemaei Geographiae...

27 DOUBLE-PAGE ENGRAVED MAPS, each printed from two copper plates. Type 1:111R. In total 115 text sheets, text on double column, 53 lines and headline. Initial spaces., 4 woodcut diagrams on a9v, a10r (2), and a10v.

Second Rome edition. "This handsome edition is a reprinting of the copper-plate maps of the 1478 Ptolemy [the first Rome edition by Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Buckinck, whose] maps are considered the finest Ptolemaic ones produced up to the time that the great Mercator engraved his Ptolemy of 1578…
It is believed that Sweynheym was the one who first thought of applying the very new art of copper engraving to the printing of maps, and he might have taken a hand in the actual engraving of them himself" (World Encompassed).

While the Bologna edition of 1477 was the first atlas to use copperplate maps, the present series is generally regarded as superior for its clear captions, accurate projections and overall design and there are indications the Bologna edition was hurried through the press.

The captions were stamped into the plates, not engraved.

The watermarks: The text leaves are watermarked with a cross within a circle, and maps are watermarked with a cardinal hat. (cf. on the 'Cosmographia' editions: R. Peerlings, F. Laurentius & J. v.d. Bovenkamp, Quaerendo, vol. 47, nr. 3-4, (2017), p. 315 and also (at length): https://www.berlinghieri.eu by R. Peerlings and F. Laurentius).

"This handsome edition is a reprinting of the copper-plate maps of the 1478 Ptolemy [the first Rome edition by Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Buckinck, whose] maps are considered the finest Ptolemaic ones produced up to the time that the great Mercator engraved his Ptolemy of 1578... It is believed that Sweynheym was the one who first thought of applying the very new art of copper engraving to the printing of maps, and he might have taken a hand in the actual engraving of them himself" (World Encompassed).
While the Bologna edition of 1477 was the first atlas to use copperplate maps, the present series is generally regarded as superior for its clear captions, accurate projections and overall design. Also, there are indications the Bologna edition was hurried through the press: the captions were not engraved but stamped into the plates.
The early Italian Ptolemys, particularly the Rome editions, are "superb testimonials of Italian craftsmanship without the picturesque but unscientific monsters of the medieval maps or the addition of the adventitious decoration of later work, relying for their beauty solely on the delicacy of their execution and the fineness of the material employed" (Tooley).
As Tooley observes, the maps in the atlas have no external border decorations or co-ordinate lines, relying instead on the clarity of the engraving.

The plates for the Rome editions of Ptolemy were several years in the making, and they are considered to be "the finest Ptolemaic plates produced until Gerard Mercator engraved his classical world atlas" a century later (Shirley). They were produced by two German printers, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Buckinck, and "it is believed that Sweynheym was the one who first thought of applying the very new art of copper-engraving to the printing of maps, and he might have taken a hand in the actual engraving of them himself" (Scammell).

References:  BMC IV, 133; BSB-Ink P-861; Goff P-1086; HC 13541; Nordernskiöld 7; Sabin 66474; Shirley 4; The World Encompassed 40