"Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio…", Mercator, Rumold

This beautiful double hemisphere map is surrounded in an elaborate strapwork border with an armillary sphere and a 32-point compass rose tucked between the hemispheres. Rumold Mercator based this map on his father's great world map of 1569. The North Pole is depicted as a landmass surrounding a sea from which four rivers radiate and there is a well depicted Northwest Passage. In the Antarctic is the imaginary southern continent and there is a bulge in the southwest coast of South America. The map embodies many ancient authorities and is a wonderful view of classical cartography. Cracks in the copper plate are barely visible in the title, indicating a later publication circa 1613. French text on verso.

References: Shirley #157.

Condition: A

Tissue repairs on centerfold with a couple extraneous creases, else very good.