"Tab. III. Africae, in qua Cyrenaica, Marmarica, ac Lybia Exterior", Ptolemy/Mercator

Great Ptolemaic map of eastern Libya and Egypt with numerous ancient place names, particularly along the course of the Nile. The interior is filled with fanciful animals and monsters including a superb dragon. Mercator originally published this map in his 1578 edition of Ptolemy's great Geography. Although he is most renowned today for the projection he popularized and for first using the term Atlas for a collection of maps, he devoted much of his life to his Ptolemaic maps. The maps were beautifully engraved as nearly as possible to their original form and embellished with fine cartouches. There is evidence of plate crack near cartouche.

References: Mickwitz & Miekkavaara (Nordenskiold) #235-4.

Condition: A

There is expert paper restoration of a small section of the Mediterranean Sea in the upper right corner with facsimile of the stippling in the sea. The work is extremely well done and only visible on very close inspection.